Rabat, Feb.26– Smoking is a
major cause of death in Morocco, with a high rate of tobacco-associated
cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, said Noureddine Chaouki, head of
the department of non-transmissible diseases at the health ministry.
Dr. Chaouki, who took part in the World Health Organization in the
negotiations that led to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which
will enter into force on February 27, told MAP 34% of Moroccan men and 1%
of Moroccan women aged over 20 are smokers.
In Morocco, which signed the WHO convention but has not yet ratified it,
tobacco consumption is a direct cause of serious diseases of the
respiratory tract, particularly ear-nose-throat cancer, lungs cancer,
cardiovascular diseases and others.
According to the WHO, tobacco consumption is currently the single leading
preventable cause of death, which results in the premature death of nearly
five million people a year. If current smoking patterns continue, the
number of deaths will double to 10 million a year by 2020.
He also stressed the importance of the Convention as the first
international public health treaty and announced that the health ministry
will hold next March 17 an information and awareness-raising meeting on
the treaty for several ministries to push forward for the convention
ratification.
Morocco developed a tobacco control strategy, embodied in a law that was
enforced in February 1998 and that bans smoking in public spaces as well
as tobacco advertisement.
However, he went, Morocco needs to adopt implementation texts for the law
and to ratify the WHO convention, in addition to taking more stringent
measures to cut smoking habit such as the increase of tobacco taxes and
cigarettes prices.
In 2004, 14.5 billion cigarettes were sold in Morocco.
© MAP
2005 |
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