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| Sunday, 2 June 2002 |
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Sri Lanka tops list of tobacco-related deaths by Deepal Warnakulasuriya Almost 20,000 deaths occur only in Sri Lanka due to tobacco-related ailments in a calendar year. In the rest of theworld, 4.3 million deaths occur due to tobacco-related diseases per year. Ninety four per cent of tobacco profits go to other countries, however, revealed the Non-Communicable Diseases Program (NCDP) of the Health Ministry recently. "Handsome men and beautiful women in tobacco and alcohol advertisements are actually not tobacco or alcohol users. They are only engaged in a business which has only direct commercial purposes," Dr. Kan Tun, the World Health Organisation (WHO) representative to Sri Lanka, said. Dr. Kan Tun revealed these at a media briefing which had been organised to make media personnel aware of tobacco issues targeting the World No Tobacco Day which fell on last 31 by the NCDP of the Health Ministry. He also pointed out that the necessity of implementing a policy on this issue and that any delay in implementing such a policy would only lead to more unwanted deaths and more costs to the country. The NCDP also emphasized the necessity of providing a quality health education to the public. They also pointed out that enticing advertisements are used to win people over to their products. The Program also suggested formulating strict rules and regulations on selling tobacco-related products to those under 16 years of age. |
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