With the slogan, “Tobacco Free World’, the World No Tobacco Day is being observed in Nepal by organising various programmes Thursday.

Miss Nepal-2007 Sitashma Chand (second from right) participating in an awareness rally marking World No Tobacco Day in Kathmandu, Thursday, May 31 07. nepalnews.com/rh

Miss Nepal-2007 Sitashma Chand (second from right) participating in an awareness rally marking World No Tobacco Day in Kathmandu, Thursday, May 31 07. nepalnews.com/rh
Issuing a message on the occasion, Minister for Health and Population, Giriraj Mani Pokhrel said that as smoking tobacco not only invites all kinds of problems but also causes adverse impact on the health and financial condition of the individual, community and the entire country. He added that it is everybody’s responsibility to save one’s valuable and productive life from the hazards of smoking and other kinds of tobacco consumption.

Minister Pokhrel further said that in order to check the unabated growth in the consumption as well as promotion of tobacco products the government has been signatory to Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which has already been ratified from the parliament.

“The government is committed to implement FCTC in its true tenet and spirit,” he added.

The Ministry of Health and Population also organised various programmes today.

May 31st is marked as the World No Tobacco Day.

According to statistics, an estimated 15,000 people die in Nepal every year from tobacco consumption, leading many anti-smoking activists here to lobby for stricter laws to curb the production and marketing of tobacco products. Globally, five million people die due to smoking related illnesses every year.