Two years ago I was excited to read about the the first-ever Youth Smoking Prevention City in the Middle East which was to be established here in Jordan. I don’t know what kind of role is it playing in changing the status of smoking in Jordan, I’m not even sure it’s been established. In 2003 the Jordanian Ministry of Health established a smoking cessation clinic in JUST . Apparently, there’s something horribly wrong with Jordan’s anti-smoking policy because despite of the publicly annoucned anti-smoking efforts, more than half the men I know are smokers and 25% of the girls I know are smokers too.
I’ve never in my life been exposed to so much smoke; I lived for 13 years in the U.A.E and I didn’t inhale as much smoke in the 13 years as I did in the 8 months I spent in Jordan. It’s tragic. And I’ll be talking about it more, and hopefully do something more than just blogging about it in the near future. I know that many people will probably dislike me for that, but honestly, I’d rather be a disliked anti-smoking person than a liked but apathetic to people’s health person.
Meanwhile, the following are glimpses into Jordan’s smoke status:
In a country like Jordan, where GDP per capita income is a struggling JD3,200, cigarette smoking can be a major drain on Jordanians’ discretionary income. With more than 10 per cent of Jordanians living below the World Bank’s definition of abject poverty, the Kingdom cannot afford to allow smoking levels to increase or to even continue at the same rates. [Source]
Jordan’s Department of Statistics reported within the last five years that Jordanians spend about JD250 million (approximately $350 million) on tobacco products every year, a sum representing two per cent of Jordan’s gross national product in 2004. This bears repeating: one of every 50 dinars generated by the Jordanian economy is spent on tobacco.[Source]
The percentage of smokers below 15 years of age had increased by 37 per cent last year among males and by 26 per cent among females” - Minister of Health Saeed Darwazeh in September 2005 [Source]
According to Ministry of Health figures, around one-third of the Kingdom’s 5.5 million population are smokers. [Source]
According to figures from the ministry’s Anti-Smoking Department, 34 per cent of children aged between 13-15 smoke cigarettes and other tobacco products such as the hubble-bubble. [Source]
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I can assure you that these numbers are flawed. At least 75% of males smoke in Jordan.
everyone smokes in jordan one way or another. If not cigarets or cigars it has to be hubbly bubbly… I dont smoke neither however i believe i should be counted as a smoker in the jordanian statics, cause i inhale a whole lot of second hand smoke everywhere in jordan