ALMOST a quarter of the Cypriot population smokes, with studies indicating around 700 deaths per year attributed to smoking related diseases, Health Minister Andreas Gavrielides said yesterday.
“Tobacco is deadly in any form or disguise. That includes pipes, cigars, water pipes and ‘light’ cigarettes,” the minister told reporters ahead of today’s World No Tobacco Day.
Gavrielides said the addiction was a global epidemic causing disability, disease, lost productivity and death, yet tobacco companies continued to promote new tobacco products with new names, packaged in such a way to appear less harmful to health and more attractive to smokers.
“No scientific evidence has been found to support any such products are less harmful the peoples’ health,” he said.
Research showed 38.1 per cent of men and 10.5 per cent of women in Cyprus were smokers, with a national average of 24 per cent.
“These levels are on par with European Union averages, but we would like to see this [national] percentage drop below 20 per cent,” Gavrielides said.
“It has also been estimated that 600-700 deaths annually in people over 35 are due to smoking-related diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and severe respiratory conditions.
“Smoking kills half of all smokers and half of those are aged between 35 and 69.”
The results of a recent study conducted by the Cyprus International Institute for the Environment and Public Health in association with Harvard School of Public Health showed that direct annual health costs amounted to £28 million, while indirect costs (including anything from increased sick leave to forest fires) burdened the state with £100 million annually.
“This is more money than is incurred from revenue generated through tobacco sales,” Health Ministry permanent secretary Soteris Soteriou added.
In its efforts to reduce the number of smokers, Gavrielides said his ministry was in the process of drawing up a Tobacco Plan, including enforcing existing legislation regarding no-smoking in public building and in the workplace.
“Some places have already implemented this policy,” he said.
In the meantime, the minister had set up smoking cessation clinics at all state hospitals which to date had seen 850 smokers, with 468 successes, Gavrielides said.
“That’s just over half of all smokers, which shows how great this addiction is and how much more conviction is needed to quit,” he said.
Anti-smoking campaigns involving visits from health inspectors would also be introduced at primary schools from the beginning of the new academic year to help educate and inform children about the harmful effects of smoking from an early age.
The minister ended by stressing this year’s no tobacco day message.
He said: “There is no health safe tobacco product. All tobacco products kill. Stopping smoking is the only way a smoker can reduce the danger of becoming afflicted with smoking-related diseases.”
THE HEALTH Ministry yesterday announced the name of this year’s winners in the ‘Quit and Win’ competition.
The three former smokers who kicked the habit for a period of four weeks in order to win the prize were randomly selected in a draw.
They are Andreas Kyprianou, Christos Zenios and Giorgos Christodoulou. All three are from Limassol and will receive £200, £300 and £500 respectively.
This year, 271 smokers participated in the World Health Organisation smoking cessation initiative, 19 of whom were randomly selected (as outlined in the WHO rules) after the four weeks and tested to ensure they had not smoked during the entire month of May as specified according to the competition’s regulations. It was from those 19 that the three winners were yesterday selected.
Christodoulou’s name will be sent to Finland’s Public Health Institute, who initiated the competition, for a grand draw of all the participating countries’ first place winners for the World and International Regional prizes of $10,000 and $2,500, respectively.
