This year’s World No Tobacco Day, the annual event sponsored by the World Health Organisation, is critically important for the Middle East region, according to health experts and legislators.
The aim of the day is to increase awareness globally about the dangers of tobacco use, to encourage governments to strictly regulate tobacco products and to get individuals to quit tobacco use.
According to the World Health Organization, every eight seconds a person dies of a smoking-related disease. Deaths from cancer, heart attacks, lung diseases and complications of pregnancy caused by tobacco are set to double.
Tobacco use currently kills five million a year and the death toll will rise to 10 million by the 2020s, unless urgent action is taken now.
One of the major areas of focus of the campaign in the Middle East will be sheesha or water-pipe smoking. With the introduction of fruit, honey and herb-flavoured tobacco, sheesha usage is increasing in popularity among young people, women, families, including children, and on college campuses.
Many assume it is safe because the smoke passes through water. However, serious lung disease, cancer (oral and bladder) and addiction are linked to water-pipe smoking. Women who use water-pipes during pregnancy face an increased risk of having babies with low birth weight.
In the Middle East, the campaign is being supported by Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company.
“To successfully combat the deaths and disease caused by tobacco, physicians and non-physicians need to reframe how we think about the range of tobacco-related products,” said Dr. Ahmed El Hakim, Director, External Affairs & Policy, Middle East Region, Pfizer.
“Tobacco dependence creates a chronic relapsing medical condition in smokers and tobacco-users. Many users may require medical treatment for this condition, because the majority are addicted to nicotine,” he added.
As part of its support for World No Tobacco Day, Pfizer is supporting the Ministry of Health’s letter-writing and poster campaign, designed to encourage smoking cession.
An additional focus of the regional campaign will be Bidi smoking, which is popular among the Indian national population. Bidis are manufactured in India and exported worldwide. They are made of tobacco rolled in dried tree leaf, and Bidi smoke is as harmful as cigarette smoke.
The different forms of tobacco are all deadly. On World No Tobacco Day, the WHO plans to issue a call to governments to strictly regulate the manufacture, sale and use of all tobacco products – traditional, new, and even future.
The UAE is taking a lead in this area with the announcement that public departments in Dubai will become smoke-free from May 31, which coincides with World No Tobacco Day.
Because smoking is chemically addictive, one of the major challenges for encouraging the cessation of smoking in the region is providing support for people to quit smoking.
Representatives of Pfizer are extremely confident that their latest medical breakthrough, Champix (Varenicline), will prove hugely beneficial in this area.
When smokers inhale a lit cigarette, nicotine within seconds reaches the brain and binds to a nicotinic receptor which activates the reward pathway in the brain's circuitry. This creates a powerful sense of satisfaction. The initial effects recede quickly and a cycle of craving and withdrawal ensues.
Applying new understandings about the brain, biology and chemistry to smoking cessation, researchers took a wholly new therapeutic approach to this medical condition.
They specifically designed and developed a pill for smoking cessation that targets the nicotinic receptor in a unique way. Champix is designed to activate the nicotinic receptor to reduce both the severity of the smoker’s craving and the withdrawal symptoms from nicotine. As an added benefit, it also blocks the reward of nicotine through antagonism of the receptor.
Champix is due to be available in the UAE in 2007.
