VietNamNet Bridge – A month-long anti-smoking campaign was launched in HCM City last week, aiming to raise awareness of the harmful effects of both active and passive smoking.
The campaign was also launched in Hanoi on November 1 by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to statistics by the Ministry of Health, Vietnamese spent up to VND2,304 billion (US$ 109 million) on treating lung cancer, coronary artery disease and obstructive pulmonary disease besides 25 other tobacco-related diseases in 2010.

Meanwhile, last year Vietnamese people spent around US$1 billion on buying cigarettes, according to the WHO.

The campaign will run from November 1 to December 1. The media is fully supporting the campaign and providing free multimedia promotional material to be shown on TV, pasted on buildings, bus stations, supermarkets and public places.

The campaign also hopes to garner the support of communes and policy-makers in the country.

Vietnam is among 15 countries in the world which has the highest number of smokers. According to a survey conducted by the Vietnamese Ministry of Health and the WHO in 2010, 47 percent (or 15.3 million of the total population) of Vietnamese male adults are smokers. There are also 33 million passive smokers at home and 5 million being passive smokers at workplace.

Around 40,000 people die of smoking every year, three times more than the number of dead victims of road accidents.