During National Non-Smoking Week, all forms of advertisement, trade promotion and sponsorship by tobacco companies will be prohibited.

In addition, cigarette retail prices and import taxes will see a hike and a ban on selling cigarettes to people under 18 years of age will also go into effect.

The week will end on Saturday.

The Ministry of Health as well as the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will work with the World Health Organization to implement the week to mark World Non-Smoking Day, May 31.

A recent WHO survey showed that one person died of cigarette-related diseases every 6.5 seconds and there are about one billion smokers worldwide, 85 percent of whom live in developing countries.

The survey also showed that 56 percent of men and close to 1.8 percent of women in Vietnam are regular smokers, 31 percent of whom are young people.

The number of tobacco-related deaths in Vietnam hits 40,000 on average annually.

This article appeared on www.thanhniennews.com

May 27, 2008

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