The movement to reduce tobacco use has been gathering pace in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), as governments aim at implementing legislation to encourage populations to turn away from tobacco consumption and avoid the associated health risks. Indeed, within the Region it was in 2007 that Egyptian cardiologist Prof. Hamdi El Sayed, former member of parliament and former head of the Medical Syndicate, successfully proposed legislation for the implementation of graphic health warnings on tobacco packets covering 50% of visible packaging. In 2011, cardiologist Dr George Saade, former focal point of tobacco control in the Lebanese Ministry of Health, proposed banning tobacco use in all public places in Lebanon - a country coined a "paradise for smokers" in local media - and witnessed the implementation of this ground-breaking legislation. Meanwhile, in 2013, cardiologist Dr Sania Nishtar, Pakistan, stood strongly in support of the tobacco control movement with regard to the adoption of legislation comprehensively banning tobacco advertising in Pakistan.
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