Kathmandu, June 1 (RSS): Participants at a symposium organised here today to mark the World No-smoking Day have stated that the awareness raising messages against smoking should be included in school curricula.
The participants of the symposium on the role of government and the press in the campaign against smoking had been organised by Nepal Cancer Relief Society (NCRS) pointed out the need for the government to express commitment to generate awareness against smoking and said that law to ban smoking at public places should be enacted soon.
Advertising of smoking in the print media and billboards should be prohibited, and the statutory warning and the nicotine content in the cigarettes should be written in bold letters on the cigarette packet, they said.
Head of the policy and planning division of the Ministry of Health, Dr. D.B. Chataut said that as it would be very difficult for the habitual smokers to give up smoking, special attention should be paid to prevent people from getting addicted to it.
Professor Dr. Anjani Kumar Sharma said that advertisement of the cigarette should be totally banned.
Representative of the World Health Organisation Dr. Paramita Sudharto said that the world of sports was becoming the medium for advertising cigarettes and this that was the reason behind importance given to sports in the no smoking day this year.
Former NCRS president Karna Shakya said that the tax levied by the government on cigarette would help support the programmes of the NCRS also.
President of Nepal Advertisement Agencies Association Bhaskar Rajkarnikar and NCRS president Divakr Rajkarnikar also expressed their views on the occasion.