[Intl-tobacco] Vietnamese Government Intensifies Anti-Smoking Campaign (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Vietnamese Government Intensifies Anti-Smoking Campaign
by XINHUA via NewsEdge
Source: NewsEdge, Thursday, 8/17/00

 HANOI (Aug. 16) XINHUA via NewsEdge Corporation - The Vietnamese
government plans to intensify its anti-smoking campaign with the aim of
reducing tobacco supply and demand and the incidence of smoking-related
diseases and deaths, Vietnam News Agency reported Wednesday.

A resolution on national policies to prevent smoking-related illness for
the 2001-2010 period, issued by Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai
recently, stipulates policies to reduce tobacco product use and supply,
expand international cooperation and ensure enforcement of national
policies and programs in the fight against cigarette harm.

The targets of the national policies are to lower the number of male
smokers to 20 percent from 50 percent, female smokers to under 2 percent
and smokers in the 15-24 age bracket from 26 percent to 7 percent to
ensure the right of non-smokers to a smoke- free environment and lessen
the damage caused by smoking.

According to a survey in 1997, 50 percent of men and 3.4 percent of women
in the country smoke.

Besides the negative health impacts, smoking causes great economic losses
to families and the society.

The tobacco industry's remittances to Vietnam's state budget represent
only one-third of the sum spent on smoking (about 6,000 billion Vietnamese
dong or 428.57 million U.S. dollars), according to the government.