Director of King Hussein Cancer Centre, Asem Mansour, revealed yesterday that Jordanians are the biggest smokers in the Arab region and the third in the world.

Mansour stressed, during the inauguration of a programme to tackle cigarette addiction, which was attended by representatives from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Qatar, Oman, and Morocco, on the importance of facing this “catastrophe”.

This shocking fact pushes us to think about the negative consequences on children and public health as a whole, he added.

He also said that Al-Hussein Centre works hard to fight addition which has a direct relationship with cancer, heart, and chronic diseases.

Director of the center’s Cancer Control Office, Feras Hawari, said that “this programme is the cornerstone for all the medical efforts needed to control the rise in diseases.”

He noted that training specialists who offer healthcare guarantees improve outcomes for the battle against smoking addiction.