Khaberni - The blessed month of Ramadan offers an important scientific opportunity for smokers in the process of gradually quitting this harmful habit to vital body organs, as the fasting smoker refrains from smoking for up to about 20 hours a day, including 13 hours of fasting and 7 hours of normal sleep hours, leaving the smoker with only 4 hours per day, which is an ideal opportunity for treatment every year to reach 600 hours of abstaining from smoking for lungs without smoking and regaining wellness for the body in the month of obedience and goodness.
Specialists confirmed that the blessed month of Ramadan provides the smoker with 600 hours during the 30 days out of 720 hours in this month to gradually quit smoking, as studies indicate that Ramadan specifically helps the smoker to quit smoking five times more than on normal days.
Throughout the year, the Ministry of Health provides specialized clinics in all provinces of the kingdom to assist smokers in quitting smoking, which are located in health centers, numbering 32 clinics that alternate opening during official working days from eight in the morning until two in the afternoon, and others open from nine in the morning until one in the afternoon, and they have medical and scientific methods that make quitting smoking within reach for them.
Smoking cessation clinics are distributed across various provinces of the kingdom, and the ministry provides a hotline for these clinics and smoking cessation services.
Pulmonary disease consultant Mohammad Tarawneh says that Ramadan represents an important scientific opportunity to begin getting rid of smoking in all its forms, especially since the fasting person refrains from smoking for about 13 hours daily, which is added to about 7 hours of the normal rate of night sleep, and thus the total the smoker may refrain from smoking in Ramadan daily reaches about 20 hours out of 24 hours day and night, which means that the smoker has only 4 hours to face the body's addiction to smoking.
He pointed out that 20 hours a day of abstaining from smoking equals 600 hours in 30 days out of 720 hours, which is the total number of hours that pass on the smoker during the blessed month of Ramadan, and here the smoker has only 120 hours to smoke.
This approach is reinforced by a report from Public Health England, explaining that quitting smoking for a full month increases the smoker's chances of quitting smoking permanently five times more than on ordinary days.
He confirmed that after the end of the blessed month of Ramadan, the chances of the body getting used to quitting smoking increase, and from this standpoint, Ramadan is considered an opportunity to increase the chances of permanently quitting smoking, as it represents a great opportunity to refine oneself and distance oneself from bad health habits that are accompanied by severe damage to health and the human body and even mental health, because a healthy mind is in a healthy body.
He highlighted some of the main harms that affect the human body as a result of smoking which is not limited to affecting the respiratory system only, but it affects all body organs, leading to several serious diseases including atherosclerosis, angina, liver fibrosis, and cancer.
He explained that smoking immediately after fasting could cause serious health problems, especially after long hours of fasting such as throat dryness, which increases the likelihood of mucous membrane irritation in the mouth and increases the likelihood of oral fungal occurrences, also leads to an increase in heart rate and irritation of the airways, especially in people who suffer from chronic respiratory diseases.
He noted that smoking after long hours of fasting reduces oxygen levels in the body suddenly and raises carbon dioxide levels leading to feelings of dizziness and headache, and may increase the likelihood of asthma attacks and chronic obstructive pulmonary episodes, and raises the likelihood of heart attacks.
He noted that after the blessed month of Ramadan, there is an opportunity to continue gradually quitting smoking in all its forms, indicating the possibility of using nicotine substitutes such as nicotine gum and patches and exercising; because they are among the methods that help in this regard, in addition to smoking cessation clinics spread across all provinces of the kingdom and available to help get rid of this negative habit.
Meanwhile, Professor of Legislation and Law Dr. Nehla Al-Momani told Petra that "combating and reducing smoking is considered one of the components of the right to health in its comprehensive concept, as on the international human rights standards level, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights emphasized that every human has the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, as we know that Jordan has ratified this covenant and published it in the Official Gazette."
She added that the most important agreement in this framework is the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, as this convention imposes a set of obligations on countries including the need to develop national strategies to reduce smoking in all its forms, and work within two pathways, the first pathway, to reduce demand for tobacco products by setting requirements for smoking places and raising taxes on these products, and conducting comprehensive awareness and launching warnings from these products and stating their harms, which Jordan does to a large extent, and the other pathway is to reduce the supply which is based on regulating the tobacco industry, and combating smuggling and illegal trade in its products.
She pointed out that at the national Jordanian level, there is harmony and compliance with international human rights standards in terms of achieving the aforementioned commitments, where the national strategy for combating tobacco and smoking in all its forms for the years 2024-2030 has been approved, and it includes work programs and specific mechanisms.
She explained that at the level of Jordanian national legislation, the Public Health Law was clear and devoted special provisions to ban smoking of any tobacco products in public places, nurseries, and kindergartens, and in both the public and private sectors, and the same law emphasized that it is not permissible for any person or public or private entity, including the media, to print or display or publish any advertisement for propaganda purposes for any tobacco products.
It also banned the sale of tobacco products to those under the age of 18.
She noted that the Jordanian Child Rights Law stipulates that the Ministry of Education, in coordination with the competent authorities, shall take measures to protect the child from using tobacco and other substances and raise awareness about the effects resulting from their use.
