Sir,
I have been staying in the old city section of Nicosia for the last six weeks and have been regularly walking throughout the area, often 10-15 kilometres from my hotel.
I am surprised by the high level of risky behaviour by people I observe in my walks: heavy smoking in both males and females, driving vehicles without seatbelts, not restraining children in cars, talking on mobile phones while driving, riding bicycles without helmets, riding bicycles in poor light without any safety reflectors, lights or reflective clothing, riding motorcycles without helmets.
When walking past building sites or private workshops, it is common to see people not wearing any safety equipment. Even Municipal workers using noisy equipment without ear or eye protection is common.
Surely the majority of the people in this city are looking forward to a long and productive lifespan in the best of personal health. I cannot believe that fully informed people would act like this knowing the serious consequences they face with long term health problems (smoking), or immediate accident risks from some of those other activities.
As yet I have not see any billboards, newspaper advertisements or other media representations of the risks involved in any of these activities. I think it is important to have constantly produced safety information in the public arena to assist people to make good choices about their personal health, and for others, to influence the perpetrators of risk taking activities. After all, accidents cost the community large amounts of money for rehabilitation and there are tragic consequences also from some accidents that are avoidable.
In Singapore there is a huge billboard on the main road. Knowing that smoking is the world’s major cause of preventable illness, the Singapore Government has on this huge sign, the number of people that have died this year to date from smoking related illness. The message may be subliminal, but it will influence some people and those stay out of hospital.
I agree that most of the risk-taking activities I witness every day have current laws to prevent them, but it looks like they are not enforced very strongly. Laws without enforcement are inefficient and do not contribute to the reduction of risky behaviour.
Can we see some awareness campaigns paid for by the Authorities to appear regularly in this paper and all other media please? Surely it would be beneficial use of public money if we could reduce the number of preventable accident victims filling up the hospital beds or occasionally, after tragedy strikes, filling up the cemeteries.
You, the people of Nicosia need to lobby your political representatives, and the media to get better support for your fellow man to enable them to enjoy robust health. We should not take our personal health for granted, it is a very wonderful gift. An anti-litter campaign would also be very worthwhile and produce immediate results.
In Australia, we accept awareness campaigns as a natural item throughout the media and on billboards for subjects ranging from health issues to anti litter campaigns. We do not feel threatened by them and they make the general public more immediately aware of all sorts of issues to the point where citizens also will advise others if their behaviour is seen as a risk to their health or safety. Laws are enforced and so the people understand the reasoning behind them, realising it is for their own good that they are made in the first place.
I hope when I return next year, improvements are visible because in the two years since my last visit, I am still appalled by some of the activities around me.
Dr. Peter M. Heise-Pavlov
Queensland, Australia
