ABU DHABI // Medical professionals around the GCC are backing calls for a regional law to ban the sale and importation of chewing tobacco.
The Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Water, is discussing the ban with other GCC countries because of the harmful effects of tobacco.
Chewing tobacco is banned in the UAE, but available in other Arabian Gulf countries.
Dr Widad Al Midoor, head of the anti-tobacco team at the health ministry, told Al Ittihad, the Arabic-language sister newspaper of The National, that talks were under way to impose a standard tax on tobacco products across the region.
A recent meeting of GCC finance ministers discussed enacting such laws.
Medical experts have supported a chewing-tobacco ban, saying the substance is extremely damaging to health.
Dr Devendra Reddy, a dental surgeon at LLH Hospital in Mussaffah, said: “I get quite a number of patients who chew tobacco. While some stop after I counsel them, others are not so determined and do not return. It is an addiction.
“Such a ban throughout the GCC is certainly needed and I would support it.”
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