Bill Gates Foundation assists smoking ban at Olympic games
2008-07-28 15:39:16 (GMT) (Caymanmama.com - Health News News)Orlando, Florida (CaymanMama.com) — Microsoft visionary, Bill Gates, has earmarked $130,000 for the support of a “smoke free Olympics” through his namesake Bill Gates Foundation.
“Awareness of the disease burden that smoking causes is not very widespread. I’d say most people in the US know it, but in China, that’s not the case,” said Gates at a press conferences on Wednesday in New York City.
The funds from the foundation’s commitment are expected to be invested in advertisements for the anti-smoking campaign that will be in line with the Olympic smoking ban. Beijing has already pledged to have smoke-free Games by banning smoking from almost all public places, workplaces and spectator’s areas of the open air stadiums where the Games will be held next month. The aim of the anti-smoking drive is to curb the habit that affects about 350 million people in the country.
According to figures by the World Health Organization, medical costs from smoking impoverishes about 50 million Chinese people. Similarly, as per the statistics shown by the Ministry of Health, almost 1 million people die due to smoking associated reasons every year.
Gates, who is supposed to attend the Olympics’ opening ceremony on August 8th, highlighted that education is a potent weapon to fight against smoking. He said, “We’ve got to make sure that we don’t wait until China gets as rich as we did before we woke up and changed how we thought about smoking. We want that enlightenment to come to China early on.”
The latest efforts of the Gates foundation in China have pledged to fight smoking over the next 5 years and are part of the $125 million in pledged money. These funds will come to be used in supporting efforts to cut the high rates of tobacco in countries like India and China and to prevent the tobacco epidemic from actually taking root in Africa.
CaymanMama.com - Press Release Distribution Service
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