Tobacco consumption in Iraq is a major challenge that threatens citizens’ health and drains the country’s resources. According to the statements of the Ministry of Health, Iraqis spend nearly two million US dollars per day on the purchase of tobacco products.
Specialists explain this phenomenon by the absence of clear mechanisms for imposing taxes on tobacco products, which are matched by material, economic, social and environmental difficulties that the citizen suffers from such as poverty, unemployment and ignorance.
Wasim Keelane, the assistant director of the tobacco control program at the Ministry of Health, indicated that the Iraqis spend more than 3 billion dinars (about two million and 272 thousand dollars) per day on the purchase of tobacco products, and that these funds come out of the country as a difficult currency, because most tobacco companies are foreign.
In an interview with Al -Jazeera Net, Kelan explained that Iraq, like other developing countries, suffers from material, economic, social and environmental difficulties such as poverty, unemployment and ignorance, in addition to the weak implementation of the anti -smoking law, the lack of clear mechanisms for imposing taxes on tobacco products, and the entry of these products in a way Illegal.
He explained that these reasons have left tobacco companies enough to apply flexible marketing and promotional policies for their products in loved shapes, attractive colors and different flavors, such as cigarettes and hookahs (hookah) regular and electronic and heated tobacco, which led to the lure of young children, adolescents and girls.
“Iraq has become one of the countries consumed by these products that affect public health and cause many respiratory, cancerous, immunological, intestinal, leather, poor visual and impotence, noting that this causes an increasing demand for health services and pressure on health institutions.”
He pointed out that the Supreme Committee for Combating Smoking has been formed in Iraq, headed by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health and the membership of the relevant ministries and the non -governmental bodies, and works to find policies and procedures to combat tobacco and implement Iraq international obligations within the framework of the World Health Organization on tobacco, in line with M. Power International, “a group of 6 policies developed by the World Health Organization to reduce the use of tobacco.
Kelan stressed that the Ministry of Health is preparing an annual national plan to combat smoking and awareness campaigns in cooperation with all ministries and non -governmental agencies, including:
- Applying the standard specifications by the Central Agency for Standardization and Specific Control.
- Preventing advertising and promotion.
- Finding clear mechanisms for imposing taxes and controlling borders.
- Update the curricula in education.
- Cooperation with the media in spreading awareness of health, economic, social and environmental damages to use these products.
Losing sector in Iraq
Mustafa Hanoush, a researcher and a specialist in the financial and banking side, stressed that the cigarette market in Iraq is one of the economic sectors.
Hanoush said in an interview with Al -Jazeera Net that the tobacco, Tabuk and cigarette market in Iraq exceeds one billion dollars annually from the Iraqi people spending on this trade.
He explained that the reason for this is due to the weak government procedures in the previous period, which was recently addressed as a 100% tax revenue, unlike the Kurdistan region of Iraq, which was imposing only 20% tax, which created a gap in the previous stage because there was no tax revenue for the state treasury.
On April 25, 2021, the Iraqi Ministry of Finance issued books that included the imposition of taxes on imported cigarettes by 100% and alcoholic beverages by 200%.
Hantoush pointed out that the cigarette market is primarily controlled by the markets of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, through the manufacture of cigarettes or the re -wrapping of types of cigarettes that are imported, in addition to the activity of this trade through the region.
He stressed that Iraq needs to set real controls to facilitate the entry of cigarettes from official outlets while controlling their procedures, to ensure that traders move away from smuggling or relying on the black market.
He explained that the benefit of economic countries from cigarette trade is by supporting national industries to operate thousands of people and imposing strict taxes on the importer. He pointed out that this matter does not exist in Iraq, which makes it a losing sector.
Hantush emphasized that Iraq has only one factory, which is the Sumer factory inside Baghdad and its production is modest and does not compete with the imported product, as it has another stopping laboratory, while the rest is all managed by the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Regarding the risks of smoking, Hantush has indicated that cigarettes negatively affect health, such as lung diseases and others, which are diseases that are required to treat millions of dollars by the state and the citizen.
The relationship of smoking with women
On February 2 of each year, Iraq celebrates the National Day to refrain from smoking, which is the anniversary of the day of voting on the Anti -Smoking Law No. 19 of 2012, and the celebration of this year carried the slogan “Smoking scratches the beauty and femininity of women.”
The imagination of Al -Jawahiri, who is active in women’s rights, comments that such nomenclature does not reflect reality, as there is no connection between smoking and the beauty of women or her femininity, considering that the matter falls within the framework of personal freedom unless societal norms exceed.
In an interview with Al -Jazeera Net, Al -Jawahiri explained that everyone knows the risks of cigarettes on human health, regardless of sex, and that warnings of their dangers and cancerous diseases that cause them, as well as their environmental damage to smokers and non -smokers in closed places, are clear and written on cigarette cans.
With regard to women, Al -Jawahiri emphasized that the effects of smoking go beyond the health and environmental aspects, to include society’s negative view of the smoked woman, especially in eastern and Arab societies, but it indicated that there is some mitigation of this view in Iraq, where the smoking of the wage in some restaurants is no longer a matter Surprisingly for young people of both sexes.
