Bulgaria - more than 70% of smokers want to quit...

November 20, 2009 - More than 70 percent of smokers in Bulgaria wanted to give up smoking, Yulia Medichkova of the Greenwild Foundation was quoted by Bulgarian news agency (BTA) as saying on November 19 2009.

“The Culture to Breathe” campaign - educates people on the harmful effect of smoking on people and in particular on children and grown-ups. The project also informs on possibilities for undertaking of therapy and treatment to quit smoking.

Medichkova presented the results of a one-year campaign entitled The Culture of Breathing. Over 50 percent of Bulgarians approved of increased restrictions on smoking that will be introduced by mid-2010. Bulgaria ranks third in the world in terms of number of smokers, after Japan and Greece, Medichkova said.

What was more worrying, according to another survey released by the Health Ministry on November 17 2009, was that every second pregnant woman in Bulgaria smoked during pregnancy. Smoking during pregnancy was considered extremely damaging to unborn babies' health, as the baby risks being born with a lower weight and higher risk of disease.

According to the survey, 52.4 per cent of men in Bulgaria smoked, compared to 38.1 per cent of women.

Reference: Seventy per cent of Bulgarian smokers wanted to quit, survey says by The Sofia Echo staff, 11/19/2009.

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Bulgaria is marking Tuesday, November 10, 2009, the 20th year since the internal coup at the Bulgarian Communist Party which led to the crumbling of the communist regime.