A person dies every 20 minutes in Iraq due to smoking-related health issues 

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A person dies in Iraq every 20 minutes due to health issues caused by smoking, a health official said on Wednesday.

The figure comes from a World Health Organization (WHO) estimate, Abbas Jabbar Sahib, the head of the tobacco control department at the Ministry of Health, told the Iraqi News Agency. 

According to the official, 2 billion Iraqi dinars ($1,367,000) are spent daily on cigarettes in the country. 

The average Iraqi smoker smokes 1,243 cigarettes a year, according to a report in late May by The Tobacco Atlas. 

Riyadh Al-Hilfi, the head of the public health department at the Ministry of Health, said some articles of the country’s Anti-Smoking Law No. 19 of 2012 need further amendments.

According to the law, smoking is prohibited inside buildings and on transport. But the legislation is essentially non-existent in the minds of smokers as the act is widely normalized in these places throughout the country. 

Under the law, smoking in a prohibited area is punishable by a 10,000 Iraqi dinar (nearly $7) fine. 

Advertising, sponsorship, and promotion of all kinds of tobacco are prohibited in the country.

Responsible for the deaths of eight million people annually, 

According to the WHO, smoking causes a range of major health issues, including many forms of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, and kills eight million people per year. 

Out of the 1.3 billion smokers worldwide, 80 percent live in developing countries.