YANGON, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has urged people to participate in the campaign against quid and tobacco leaf products, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Tuesday.
Suu Kyi made the call Monday at a launching ceremony of the campaign in Nay Pyi Taw. She expressed her belief that the campaign will have great impact on people's longevity and health.
She also urged people to reduce consumption of tobacco leaf products and quid as the annual fatality from such consumption was more than 60,000 out of 7 million consumers in the country according to the research.
In conducting such nationwide health program, all levels of governmental organizations together with the people should cooperate to strictly educate, inform and restrict consumption of such products, the state counselor added.
In accordance with a report by the World Health Organization, 59 percent of the fatality rate in the country in 2014 was from noncontagious diseases, which have become a big threat to people's lives in the country.
The state counselor also stressed that preventing and controlling of noncontagious diseases from consuming quid and tobacco leaf products needs to be done as smoking cigarettes and daily continuous consumption of tobacco leaf products including quid are widely spreading in the country.
The media campaign will be jointly conducted for six weeks by the ministry of health and sports and related ministries together with People's Health Foundation.
