Saudi Arabia Launches Anti-Smoking Campaign

Alwaleed Philanthropies, chaired by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Al Saud, and the Ministry of Health have launched a two-year anti-smoking campaign, targeting smokers and nonsmokers across Saudi Arabia.

The campaign is part of Saudi Arabia’s plan to reduce smoking rates from 19.8 percent to 8 percent and enhancing the quality of preventive and therapeutic healthcare services as a part of its Vision 2030.

“We are determined to enhance the quality of lives of citizens and residents across the Kingdom and are pleased to be partnering with the Ministry of Health to reduce the prevalence of smoking and raise awareness of its dangers in Saudi Arabia,” said Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Al Saud, in a press note. “This partnership is very much in line with our commitment to making sustainable philanthropic investments to empower people, near and far.”

The first phase of the awareness campaign will target nonsmokers while the second phase will focus on smokers. Moreover, in an effort to identify violators of government anti-smoking regulations, Alwaleed Philanthropies and the Ministry of Health will be directing people to a mobile application to report and monitor violations of anti-smoking regulations, including smoking in public places, selling tobacco to minors and advertising cigarette or shisha smoking on television channels.

According to the World Health Organization, tobacco use is one of the major global public health challenges, causing over 7 million deaths due to smoking-related diseases each year, 70,000 of which are Saudi citizens. A previous Saudi Health Information Survey revealed Saudi Arabia had a total of 5.5 million smokers, equating to 23 percent of the Kingdom’s population.