DESPITE COMPILING and showing evidence of tobacco's harmful health effects, the Ministry of Health says efforts to implement a smoke-free environment locally are often being hampered by a lack of public awareness of the dangers of smoking and second-hand smoke, uncertainty among some groups about the roles they should play and fear that tobacco control will have a devastating impact on Jamaica's economy.
So, the Ministry is seeking help.
A United States-based tobacco control consultant will be in the island next week to meet key players in the Ministry and tobacco related agencies as well as review local tobacco reduction and control policies and programmes.
Consultant Heather Selin, who is from the Washington office of the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO), is also expected to suggest strategies to improve projects aimed at enforcing a smoke-free environment locally.
The strategies will also help Jamaica fulfil requirements of the Frame Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), a World Health Organisation (WHO) initiative to control tobacco consumption globally.
The consultant is to also participate in a workshop on tobacco control, scheduled for Tuesday, November 19 at the Jamaica Conference Centre. The activities begin at 9:00 a.m.
The Health Ministry said that among the objectives of Ms. Selin's visit are to review the status of tobacco related legislation in Jamaica in light of the FCTC and suggest possible strategic directions in this process; advocate and strengthen support for comprehensive tobacco control among health workers and non-governmental organisations and senior personnel in other relevant agencies; support local efforts to remove obstacles to tobacco control by explaining the economics of tobacco control and dispelling other myths and fears and to present and explain the rationale for recommended tobacco control strategies.
She will be meeting with the Ministry's Smoke Free Tobacco Environment working group as well as the Ministry's health economics personnel to advise on approaches to analysis of economic implications of tobacco control, use of existing World Bank analyses among other material. Ms. Selin is also expected to give advice on possible roles for key personnel, non-governmental organisations and professional bodies in the implementation of tobacco control measures.
According to the Health Ministry, the general public is unaware of the dangers of tobacco consumption on smokers and non-smokers and has not lobbied to curb smoking in public places or work settings. The smoking dangers have even been extended to youth.
A WHO/PAHO Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) done last year and released recently showed that 19 per cent of Jamaicans aged 13-15 years currently use a tobacco product. Another 15.2 per cent currently smoke cigarettes and 14.8 per cent have never smoked but will start smoking within the next year.
The survey which sought to measure the prevalence of tobacco use, exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and the knowledge, attitudes and factors that make youth susceptible to tobacco was developed by the Tobacco Free Initiative of the WHO and the Office on Smoking and Health of the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
PAHO assisted in the survey's application in Latin America and the English-speaking Caribbean. The Jamaica GYTS was a school-based survey of students in grades 7-13 in selected schools. A total of 1,742 students participated.
Results showed that for Jamaica, 34.6 per cent of the 13-15 age group buy tobacco in a store and 76.3 per cent are not rejected from stores because of their age. Also 31.9 per cent think boys and 17.9 per cent think girls who smoke have more friends and 8.6 per cent think boys and 7.5 per cent think girls who smoke look more attractive.
Fifty per cent usually smoke at home; 30.8 per cent live in homes where others smoke and 59 per cent are around others who smoke in places outside their home. Jamaica was one of 12 countries in the Caribbean surveyed. It had the third highest level of smokers in the Caribbean following St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica.
The results showed that in some areas of the Caribbean, three out of four young smokers want to quit smoking and in all the countries and areas surveyed, more than half of the adolescents who smoke have attempted to quit smoking over the last year unsuccessfully.
