[June 03, 2009] Smoking Cessation Clinics Show the Way to Stub It Out Tweet Jun 04, 2009 (Khaleej Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- DUBAI/RAS AL KHAIMAH -- Nearly 32 per cent of the over 10,000 smokers registered with smoking cessation clinics under the Ministry of Health (MoH) have successfully given up smoking, while 10,000 more smokers have pledged to quit the habit this year as part of a nationwide anti-tobacco campaign. Providing details to Khaleej Times, Dr Wedad Al Maidoor, who heads the National Tobacco Control Committee, said 10,549 smokers had enrolled with five smoking cessation clinics under MoH ever since they were set up. "So far, 3,370 of them have successfully quit smoking. This reveals that we are above the international standards in terms of success rate of smoking cessation clinics." The official said the statistics did not include details from the quit smoking clinic at Al Baraha Hospital in Dubai. "These are the numbers from our clinic in Al Ittihad Centre in Dubai and quit smoking clinics in Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah." She said this year's No Tobacco Campaign received unprecedented response from residents. "It has been a successful initiative by all standards. We set out to educate people about the hazards of tobacco products and to elicit a response. The campaign has received 10,000 pledges from smokers to give up the habit in view of the World No Tobacco Day on May 31." Dr Prem Jagyasi, MD and CEO of ExHealth, that conceived and organised the nationwide campaign, said the pledges were received through various channels. "We received them through our online registration programme, SMS campaign through some radio stations, exhibition stands at shopping malls, internal campaigns by corporate organisations and through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter." He said the organisers had sent out 300,000 emails promoting the campaign through Emirates Post's marketing team. "We received 9,902 pledges before May 31. On the World No Tobacco Day, we received over 200 more pledges from individuals wanting to quit," he told Khaleej Times. [email protected], [email protected] Name of Quit Smoking Clinic Year of Establishment No of Smokers Enrolled No of Successful Quitters Sharjah 2000 8723 2807 Ras Al Khaimah 2007 780 305 Al Ittihad, Dubai 2007 511 140 Ajman 2008 279 62 Fujairah 2008 256 56 To see more of the Khaleej Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.khaleejtimes.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Khaleej Times, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]