National Council Against Smoking

South African Doctors Hospitals Medical - Patient Support Associations - National Council Against Smoking

The National Council Against Smoking was established in 1976. It is registered as a Section 21 Not for Profit company. It is registered with the Department of Social Development as a Non Profit Organization and is authorised to collect contributions in the Republic of South Africa.

The Council's mandate is to improve public health by promoting non-smoking. The following statements issued by the 23rd World Health Assembly in 1970 stress the importance of the anti-tobacco initiative:

Smoking-related diseases are such important causes of disability and premature death in developed countries that the control of cigarette smoking could do more to improve health and prolong life in these countries than any other single action in the whole field of preventive medicine. It can be confidently forecast that if cigarette smoking spreads in developing countries it will bring disability and death in its wake, just as much as in developed countries.

In 1995 the World Bank stated: Unless smoking behaviour changes, three decades from now, premature deaths caused by tobacco in the developing world will exceed the expected deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis, and complications of childbirth combined.