High smoking incidence among doctors
About 43 per cent of smokers in the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq are males aged from 15 to 25, according to a story by Salih Waladbagi for the Kurdish Globe, quoting figures from a survey conducted by the Zhian Health Organization (ZHO).
The survey found, too, that about 18 per cent of the women in the region were smokers, as were 32 per cent of doctors.
About 36 per cent of ‘young men’ were shisha smokers.
Kurdistan’s parliament ratified in 2008 a prohibition on smoking in public places, but the ban is apparently not strictly enforced.
The law sought also to require the inclusion of Kurdish-language health warnings on cigarette packs, but this requirement has not been ratified as yet; so cigarettes without such health warnings continue to be imported.
