National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) said Thursday that it has received the “World No Tobacco Day Awards” from the World Health Organization (WHO) for its fight against tobacco.

The WHO designated the World Smoking Cessation Day, on May 31, in 1987 to prevent the spread of tobacco and the deaths and illnesses caused by smoking.

The global organization praised the NHIS's tobacco lawsuits against the tobacco companies and also its projects supporting smoking cessation treatment for smokers. Such efforts include the company suing domestic tobacco companies, including KT & G, in April 2014.

“Our lawsuits demanded legal responsibility from tobacco companies, who had known for a long time about the harmfulness and addictive nature of cigarettes but either denied the danger or concealed and distorted facts against such information,” an NHIS official said.

The agency has also been running a support program for smoking cessation treatment since February 2015. The program provides professional advice from medical professionals, counseling, anti-smoking medicines, and purchase of smoking cessation aids to all citizens who want to quit smoking.

Over the past three years, 995,000 smokers participated in the smoking cessation program at 12,706 medical institutions, and 44.3 percent of the participants have completed the program.

The success rate of smoking cessation for six months was 39.0 percent, and the satisfaction rate of participants was over 80 percent. Also, 83.7 percent of participants said they would like to recommend smoking cessation programs to others.

“Tobacco is an addictive substance and smoking is an addictive habit that needs treatment,” NHIS President Kim Yong-ik said. “The NHIS will continue to do its utmost to solve the problem of smoking.”

corea022@docdocdoc.co.kr

<© Korea Biomedical Review, All rights reserved.>