TEHRAN -- The Secretary General of the Iranian Anti-Tobacco Association, Mohammadreza Masjedi, said, "There are 10 million smokers in Iran who spend over 30 billion rials for cigarettes everyday. The government has to spend twice this amount to treat diseases caused by cigarette smoking."

He said that there are at least 20 kinds of cancer and 80 kinds of diseases associated with smoking, adding that the increasing rate of smoking among teenagers is alarming. He attributed the alarming rise in cigarette smoking among the youth to the ineffectiveness of the campaign to educate young people about the side effects of smoking, particularly the social, economic and psychological repercussions.

According to the latest reports on smoking among high school students, over 60 percent of the boys and 30 percent of the girls have tried smoking once. According to these statistics, up to 20 percent of Iranian young people could begin smoking in the near future.

Referring to laws that prohibit smoking in public places and the decline in smoking in many other countries, Masjedi noted with regret the impracticability of laws or rules of this kind.

He criticized the fact that traditional restaurants and a number of hotels offer facilities for water-pipe smoking.

The International Anti-Tobacco Association has conducted research comparing access to rice and cigarettes in different countries. Cigarettes are more readily available than rice he said, adding that it takes people on average about 6 minutes to find cigarettes but about an hour to find rice according to the study.

He noted that 54 billion cigarettes are smoked annually in Iran, 25 percent of which are domestically produced or legally imported, the rest being smuggled cigarettes.

About 1.1 billion people smoke around the world, 4 million of whom die annually due to smoking. He said that this figure is projected to reach 10 million by 2020 and that 7 million of these people would be from developing countries.

Masjedi stated that the anti-tobacco campaign will not cause an economic recession because people who quit smoking will spend the money they previously spent on cigarettes in other sectors, so the campaign is cost-effective.

The World Bank recently announced that governments investing in the cultivation, production, and distribution of tobacco would be proscribed. This shows that economic experts believe that the tobacco industry does not boost national economies and does not create job opportunities.