The seminar, entitled “For a Tobacco-free Vietnam”, was co-organised by the Health Ministry and the American Cancer Society for the media to exchange experiences in communications works on smoking.
Dorotheo also expressed his fine impression about the warnings of smoking dangers on tobacco packaging in Vietnam, which are printed in large letters.
However, Vietnam is one of countries in the world with the highest rate of male smokers (56 percent).
Ly Ngoc Kinh, Head of the Treatment Department under the Health Ministry, said that the number of deaths from smoking-related diseases was estimated at about 30,000-40,000 a year in Vietnam. In addition, the money spent to buy tobacco and treat diseases related to smoking constitutes an economic burden on individuals, families, and the society as a whole.
In 2007 only, Vietnamese people spent as much as VND14 trillion (US$784 million) on tobacco and over VND1 trillion (US$56 million) on treating tobacco-related diseases.
The Vietnamese Government has committed to campaign against the evils of tobacco and was the 47th among 160 countries to ratify the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. On August 21, 2008, the Prime Minister approved the plan to implement this convention.
The WHO also expressed its concern that in recent years, while the number of smokers has fallen in developed countries, it has increased in developing ones, especially among the poor and low-income earners.