smoking charity in the Eastern Province, Purity, claims that more than 1,000 male smokers quit the habit last year after treatment at their centers. However, Saleh A. Al-Abbad, the Director of Purity, told Saudi Gazette that while this was a significant achievement, an “alarming” number of students have started smoking in the region.??“According to a survey conducted at the secondary schools of Dammam, Al-Khobar and Dhahran, around 40 percent of the students are smokers, of which 27 percent started smoking at the tender age of 10. The numbers have now increased tremendously due to various reasons,” said Al-Abbad. Al-Abbad cites the easy availability of cigarettes in grocery shops and a lack of restrictions on the sale of cigarettes to children as the prime reason for the huge number of child smokers. “Most of the young smokers start their habit from home. Having one or both parents being smokers, the tendency is for children to take a puff from cigarette butts resulting in the creation of a full time smoker,” said Al-Abbad. “Also, they start smoking because of peer pressure,” he added. “Purity aims to hold awareness campaigns in the Eastern Province focusing on students by providing them with brochures and booklets regarding the health hazards of smoking, including cancer. We also plan to hold exhibitions at secondary schools across the Eastern Province to create awareness among students and help them to quit the habit. This will take place with the cooperation of the school authorities and the families of the student smokers,” he said. “We have a total of seven clinics – one each in Hail, Al-Kharj, Al-Hassa and Dammam, and three in Riyadh. But we lack the funds to conduct several programs. We depend solely on the charity of well-wishers,” he added. “The Eastern Province has a large number of women smokers, but unfortunately we do not have clinics for women,” he said. Al-Abbad welcomed the recent decision of the Eastern Province municipal authorities to ban Shisha coffee shops inside the cities, in the interest of public health. He said this move will strengthen the anti-smoking drive in the region. According to the latest statistics, Saudis spend an estimated SR8 billion on cigarettes every year.
