Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Tobacco Control Policies for OIC Member States
SESRIC jointly organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Turkey and the Turkish Green Crescent Society the “Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Tobacco Control Policies for OIC Member States ” in Istanbul, Turkey on 14-16 December 2016.
Member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have agreed to put graphic warnings on tobacco packages starting in August 2012. The law to be enforced by the six-nation GCC (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman) includes graphic warnings on boxes of tobacco used in hookah pipes and other smoking tools.
The Saudi Ministry of Health has intensified its campaign to make Mecca and Medina tobacco-free cities while Hajj pilgrims are flocking to the holy sites from worldwide. In this frame, Dr. Sameer Al-Sabban, the executive director of the Anti-Smoking Campaign in Mecca, said that they “require the cooperation of pilgrims to make the two holy cities among those with the lowest tobacco consumption in the world”.