Health minister calls on tightened measures to curb smoking

Minister of Health, Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, has just called on local people, especially young people, to say no to smoking at a Sunday meeting held on the occasion of the World No Tobacco Day.

Minister of Health, Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, has just called on local people, especially young people, to say no to smoking at a Sunday meeting held on the occasion of the World No Tobacco Day.

Minister of Health, Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, called on people to say no to smoking at an event held on May 28 in Hanoi.

Speaking at the event, Tien announced that Vietnam has made significant achievements in the fighting against the harm of tobacco  over the past 10 years.

"The number of young smokers in Vietnam has decreased to 2.5% from 3.3% in 2007," she said. "The number of passive smoking in students have fallen by 18.8%."

The health minister cited the 7 million people dying every year due to smoking-related diseases in the world, and called on local people to stop smoking to protect their own and other people's health.

She also urged for strengthening the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms in localities nation-wide.

"The number of smokers in Vietnam is still high," she said. "And it's difficult to curb that number as people easily buy tobacco at various public places and regulations have not strictly followed."

Addressing the meeting, representative from the WHO, Lokky Wai, suggested that Vietnam should raise the tax on tobacco to solve the problem.

"Taxes now only account for about 40% of tobacco prices in Vietnam which is lower than the world average rate of 58% and much lower than the suggested rate of 75% by the WHO," Lokky Wai said. "I believe that raising the taxes on tobacco will help reduce the number of smokers."