Kuwait, (Business News Report)|| Kuwaiti data stated that Kuwaitis spent $202 million on cigarettes and their derivatives during 2021, which indicates that smoking in Kuwait is expanding.
Data reported by the local newspaper, Al-Anbaa, stated that Kuwait’s imports of tobacco and its products during the last three months of last year amounted to 18 million ($58.6 million), and 17 million ($55.4 million) during the third quarter.
Imports of tobacco in the second quarter of last year amounted to 15.1 million ($49.2 million), while in the first quarter they amounted to 11.77 million dinars ($38.3 million).
It should be noted that the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kuwait Society for Combating Smoking and Cancer, Khaled Al-Saleh, revealed last April that about 3,000 people die annually in Kuwait due to smoking, either directly or indirectly.
The Kuwaiti government and civil society organizations concerned with public health implement periodic campaigns to raise awareness of the harmful effects of smoking and ways to quit.
In a related context, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health announced the update of the work plan for the smoking cessation clinics service to include the expansion of primary health care centers to reach 11 centers distributed in various health regions.
On the occasion of the celebrations of the World No Tobacco Day, Dr. Dina Al-Dhubaib, Director of the Central Department of Primary Health Care, said that the assistance clinics service is provided in cooperation between the Central Department of Primary Health Care and the National Program for Tobacco Control.
Al-Dhubaib explained that the list of centers where the service is available includes Abdullah Abdulhadi Health Centers, Ali Thunayan Al-Ghanim and Abdul Rahman Abdul-Mughni in the Capital Health District, Al-Rabiah Health Center in the Farwaniya, Rumaithiya Health Center, Hawalli Al-Gharbi in the Hawalli area, Al-Ayoun in the Jahra and Dhahr area, and East Al-Ahmadi in the Ahmadi health area.
She stated that the aim of these clinics is to provide treatment and advisory services to smokers of all ages and genders who have the desire and complete readiness to quit tobacco use through examination, follow-up and treatment through a treatment plan based on the latest international protocols.
The clinics’ supervisors are a group of doctors who have passed the training program for the treatment of nicotine addiction by internationally accredited bodies in order to help those wishing to quit smoking, she said.
