Qatar has high smoking rate

Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) new Tobacco Control Center in Qatar has been officially inaugurated by the Minister of Public Health Dr. Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari, according to a story in The Gulf Times.
During the inauguration, al-Kuwari said the new facility would play an important role in the fight ‘to reduce increasing levels of smoking in the community and the long-term harmful effects of smoking’.
“Nothing is more important for the prevention of several cancers and more than 50 other diseases than eliminating the use of tobacco products,” al-Kuwari said.
“The new HMC Tobacco Control Center reinforces our commitment to implementing effective and long-lasting strategies for reducing tobacco use and providing accessible treatment options for people who want to stop smoking. This is especially important in Qatar, where we are seeing more young people smoking and using tobacco products.
“Smoking has been shown to harm nearly every organ of the body and science shows that most adult smokers start smoking during adolescence.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Ahmad al-Mulla, head of the center said that about 37 percent of the country’s population aged 15 years and older reported that they currently smoked tobacco. It was therefore important that efforts were redoubled to reduce levels of smoking in the community.