Press Release – Belize Press Office
World No Tobacco Day
Belmopan, May 31st, 2012. Today the Ministry of Health and the National Drug Abuse Control Council (NDACC) in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrates World No Tobacco Day. Although the day is recognized every year on May 31st, the Ministry will be conducting an awareness campaign today and tomorrow, June 1st at various health centers across the country.
This year the theme is “Tobacco Industry Interference.” According to Mr. Amelio Matura, Acting Director, NDACC, the campaign will focus on the Ministry’s present campaign, activities and statistics in relation to tobacco use and other harmful drug use. WHO explains that “the campaign focus is on the need to expose the tobacco industry’s brazen and increasingly aggressive attempts to undermine the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control because of the serious danger they pose to public health.”
The NDACC will have display booths today at various health centers across the country including Punta Gorda, Dangriga, Orange Walk Town and Corozal Town. San Pedro will have a World No Tobacco Awareness Walk later this evening. Tomorrow, June 1st, Caye Caulker village will have a short ceremony and health fair at the Central Park.
Tobacco use is one of the leading preventable causes of death. WHO estimates that the global tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of which more than 600,000 are people exposed to second-hand smoke. The continuous campaign is to ensure that the numbers don’t reach up to 8 million people by 2030, of which more than 80% will live in low- and middle-income countries.
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For More Information contact:
Claudette Dakers-Norales
Information Officer
Ministry of Health
Belmopan
822-2325/2363
