Arab News 

RIYADH, 29 November: Minister of Health Dr. Hamad Al-Manie said here yesterday that the country intends to sue American and European tobacco companies that sell their products in the Kingdom, for the deaths and diseases caused by smoking.

The minister, who inaugurated the 12th Gulf Symposium Against Smoking in Riyadh attended by delegates from the Gulf region and the World Health Organization, said that there have been attempts to settle disputes out of court.

“I have met with representatives from tobacco companies in the Kingdom at my office before,” said Al-Manie. “And I informed them of the ministry’s plan to file a lawsuit against their companies.”

The minister said he was pressing ahead with the lawsuit unless the tobacco companies paid the full amount of compensation. The minister did not divulge how much the Kingdom is asking for in settlement.

“I will not, and neither will the ministry, forsake the rights of patients,” he said.

He, however, said he was confident the ministry would win the lawsuit since it provided statistics and medical data that showed what smoking does to destroy people’s health and eats away at social spending connected with smoking-related medical treatment by citizens.

According to the minister, SR5 billion is spent annually in the Kingdom on cigarettes and tobacco-related products.

Al-Manie lauded the efforts of the government of Saudi Arabia to combat smoking, noting that a royal decree had been issued to ban smoking in all government institutions and buildings. He also said that the law in Saudi Arabia prohibits tobacco companies from placing advertisements in local newspapers or television.

“The government’s efforts to combat smoking paid off when the World Health Organization honored the late Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd with an award in 2001 for his efforts to combat smoking when the king announced that Makkah and Madinah were smoking-free cities,” he said.

He said that anti-smoking clinics have been opened in various cities in the Kingdom as part of the ministry’s efforts to encourage smokers to give up the bad habit. He also said the ministry regularly organizes public programs that aim at creating awareness among Saudis and residents of the hazards smoking causes to a person’s health.

The two-day symposium kicked off yesterday with an overview of how tobacco moves from the field, to harvesting and processing, to store shelves, and, finally, to the lungs.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Baddah, the ministry’s anti-smoking chief, said that Saudis inhale 40,000 tons of tobacco smoke annually in 15 billion cigarettes. He pointed out that Saudi Arabia ranks 23rd in the world for the percentage of its population that smokes.

The World Health Organization released a study this week that says 6.4 million people will die each year from tobacco related diseases by 2015, 50 percent more than AIDS. Smoking related diseases are expected to be the leading causes of death in the near future even while medical science finds cures for diseases that are not the result of living habits.