MoH Union Minister attends World No Tobacco Day 2023 Ceremony
June 1
A ceremony to mark World No
Tobacco Day 2023 was held at the meeting hall of the Ministry of Health
yesterday morning.
Union Minister for Health Dr Thet
Khaing Win, deputy ministers from the Ministry of Planning and Finance, and
Ministry of Health, permanent secretaries from ministries, directors-general
and officials, chairpersons of Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association,
Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation, Myanmar Red Cross Society, Myanmar Medical
Association, Public Health Foundation, and representatives attended the event.
At the ceremony, the Union
minister said that 31 May is the World No Tobacco Day every year. Tobacco use
is a major cause of many other diseases, including chronic lung disease, but it
is an avoidable cause.
Commemorative ceremonies have
been held in countries around the world since 1989 with the aim of reducing
tobacco consumption.
The theme of the World No Tobacco
Day 2023 is “We need food, not tobacco”.
As tobacco and tobacco product
manufacturers find it difficult to find markets in developed countries, they
have expanded their target markets in developing countries.
While the number of smokers in
developed countries has decreased, tobacco use such as smoking and chewing
betel has increased exponentially in low-income developing countries.
In addition, 90 per cent of betel
nut users and tobacco smokers worldwide live in Southeast Asian countries.
According to the research that
studies the investment in tobacco and tobacco product consumption prevention
and control activities in 2018, it is found that about 64,000 people die every
year due to tobacco and tobacco consumption in Myanmar, and the annual economic
loss value is equivalent to K2.6 trillion, the Union minister stated.
The theme of this year’s theme is
to reduce tobacco production by expanding the production of alternative tobacco
crops and contributing to global food security and the elimination of hunger,
which is one of the goals of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
In such doing, he urged the ministries,
partner organizations and the public to continue to work together to raise
awareness among farmers about the cultivation of tobacco substitute trees,
support technology and finance, and develop markets for tobacco substitute
crops, he added.
Afterwards, a documentary video
was shown marking World No Tobacco Day 2023, and Union minister and officials
toured the small gallery commemorating the event. — MNA/KZL
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