Quitters deserve credit in smoking fight, not me: Hungarian PM
Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), presented Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with the World No Tobacco Day 2013 award this week in recognition of the Hungarian government’s non-smoking initiatives.
“The acknowledgement primarily goes to those Hungarian citizens who used to light one cigarette after another but have now succeeded in giving up,” Orbán said, adding that it can now be stated that more and more people in the country are choosing to quit the habit.
With Hungary leading mortality statistics in smoking-related lung cancer, the government has introduced several measures to combat smoking and protect non-smokers. Orbán listed such measures and recalled that in 2012 smoking was prohibited in enclosed as well as in some public spaces, and from 2013 tobacco products can only be sold if they include illustrated warnings on their packaging.
