YEREVAN, MAY 31, NOYAN TAPAN. RA Ministry of Health with the motto "Environment Free of Smoke: Create and Enjoy" joined the world day Without Smoking marked on May 31. As UN Resident Coordinator Consuelo Vidal said at the press conference held the same day, the danger of secondary smoke of cigarette for non-smokers is almost equal to smoking. In her words, smoking causes cancer, as well as serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases among children and adults. Studies showed that today the half of regular smokers, over 650 million people, will become a victim of smoking. C. Vidal mentioned as alarming the circumstance that every year hundreds of thousands of non-smoking people die from diseases caused by secondary smoke of cigarettes. C. Vidal said that smoking is the second main cause of death in the world. Every year more people die from smoking than in general from accidents, suicides, AIDS and drugs. The accounts presented by the World Health Organization mention that nearly 5 million people die as a result of smoking every year and if it continues like this, this number will reach 10 million in 2020.

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