Nhan Dan - A national non-smoking week, from May 25 to 31, was launched on May 24 by the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the World Health Organisation.

Addressing the event, Nguyen Thi Xuyen, minister of public health, highlighted damage caused by smoking to people, especially young people.

According to a study by the World Health Organisation, a person dies of smoking-related diseases every 6.5 seconds.

There are around 1 billion smokers and 85% of the figure is in developing countries, and more and more women smoke.

In Vietnam, 56% of men and 1.8% of women are smokers. Young people account for 31% of the number of smokers. Smoking each year kills around 40,000 people.

Responding to the World Non-smoking Day, May 31, the World Health Organisation and the Ministry of Public Health worked out measures to reduce the number of smokers in 2008.

Concretely, new legal documents will be issued while the education of damage caused by smoking will be promoted.