DUBAI - Saudi Arabia will launch a campaign against smoking during Haj as two million Muslims from around the world prepare to gather in the holy city of Mecca in late November, Arab News reported on Tuesday.
Officials will distribute 1.5 million leaflets in various languages, including Arabic, English, French, Persian, Urdu, Turkish, Indonesian and Swahili, telling pilgrims not to smoke in Mecca and Medina.
The government wants to make the annual pilgrimage completely tobacco-free, the newspaper reported, citing Majed al-Munif, head of the Ministry of Health’s anti-smoking initiative.
“We require the cooperation of pilgrims in order to make the two holy cities among those with the lowest tobacco consumption in the world,” he said.
Despite government’s anti-tobacco efforts, smoking remains a serious problem among Saudi population.
Top brands of cigarettes and other tobacco products are among the cheapest in the Gulf states and imported with very low or no taxes.
Smokers in Saudi Arabia spend some 8 billion riyals ($2.13 billion) on cigarettes every year with one in every four citizens a smoker.