Illustrative image (Source: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – Vietnamhas seen a marginal 2 percent decline in the number of cigarette smokers sincethe Law on Tobacco Harm Preventionand Control took effects six years ago, heard a conference held in Ho Chi MinhCity on May 10 to seek measures to improve the efficiency of the law’simplementation.
According to Hoang Thi Huong from the Ministry of Health, Vietnamis among 15 countries with the highest ratio of cigarette-smokers in the world,with about 17 million smokers. Up to 45 percent of mature men and 1.1 percent ofmature women are smokers.
The number of passive smokers is about 33 million, she said,stressing that each year, about 40,000 people die of cigarette-relateddiseases, much higher than those losing their lives due to traffic accidentsand HIV/AIDS.
However, public awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco remainsmodest and smoking in public places is still popular. As such, after six yearsof realising the law, the ratio of smokers declined by a minimal 2 percent,Huong stressed.
Dr Nguyen Trong An, Vice Director of the Research andTraining Centre for Community Development, said that in Vietnam, tobacco is aproduct that is easy to buy and be seen, with lower prices than other countriesin the region and no special consumption tax.
He pointed out that in 2015, the tobacco industry onlycontributed some 15 trillion VND (642.85 million USD) to the state budget,while the amount that people spent on cigarettes was 55 trillion VND (almost2.36 billion USD), and the money spent for treatment of cigarette-causeddiseases was 24 trillion VND (1.02 billion USD).
An held that in order to reduce the ratio of smokers, it iscrucial to apply a special consumption tax on tobacco products and raise theirprices to reduce consumption.
Meanwhile, Ngo Huy Toan from the Ministry of Information andCommunications said that the advertisement of cigarettes in mainstream mediahas been limited. However, the ads are still popular online and in restaurantsand hotels, he said.
The showcasing of cigarettes in shops has not been deterred,not to mention tobacco firms’ measures to take advantage of legal loopholes toconduct advertisement and marketing of their products, Toan added.
He proposed stricter measures in the implementation of the Lawon Tobacco Harm Prevention and Control in the future, along with the enhancementof communications to raise public awareness on the harmfulness of cigarettes tothe health of both smokers and the wider community.–VNA
VNA
