CYPRIOT teenagers smoke more than their peers in most of the countries in the region. The first-ever study on the island has revealed ten per cent of Gymnasium pupils and 29.3 per cent of Lyceum students describe themselves as smokers.
This data resulted from the first National Epidemiologic Research on smoking among youths carried out by the Cyprus International Institute for the Environment and Public Health in Association with the Harvard School of Public Health among 13.246 pupils.
From those surveyed, 28.1 per cent in Gymnasium and 58 per cent in Lyceum said they had experimented, while 19.4 per cent and 31.9 per cent respectively said they felt inclined to smoke.
“Pupils, both boys and girls, age 12 to 18, not only smoke more than other boys and girls of the same age but have surpassed most of the countries of the South-eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East,” said the report.
These results of the survey were presented yesterday at a news conference organised by the Institute and in part to launch today’s detailed seminar on the issue titled: “Making smoking History with Youth: A Comprehensive Approach”.
Today’s symposium is being dedicated to the memory of the late Minister of Education and Culture, Pefkios Georgiades, and will be attended by more than 250 secondary school teachers and foreign guests.
Presenting the main findings yesterday George Apostolopoulos, Professor of Social Epidemiology at the Cyprus International Institute focused on the contribution of social influence that is catalytic for the starting of smoking by young people.
He said an even higher risk environment for smoking, involved groups of friends and people of the same age, family environment where parents are smoking and the school environment, where classmates are smoking.
Apostolopoulos said that smoking control programmes in Cyprus must mainly focus on schools with a large number of pupils that have a high smoking risk and especially on the non smokers which are a high smoking risk target group.
“These circles the of family and friends act like ‘hatcheries’ for smoking, even for students that are not even prone to smoke,” he said.
The Dean of the Harvard School Barry Bloom, said: “Our faculty’s tobacco-control proposal outlines a strategy for adapting internationally-proven methods of reducing smoking rates to people in the Eastern Mediterranean region.
“The comprehensive plan describes specific activities-involving government officials, the media, and the public, that have been proven to change how people view smoking.”
The Director of the Cyprus Institute of Environment and Public Health Dr. Philip Demokritou welcomed the decision of the Ministry of Health to create a Task Force for tobacco control as suggested in the Strategic Plan.
He expressed the hope that the government will proceed with the implementation of the proposals outlined in the plan.
Demokritou also said that the collection of scientific data by an academic institution could not be considered successful if the information is not conveyed to the general public.
“I believe that these results will be the starting point in the development of National Strategies and the creation of smoking prevention so needed in Cyprus and the whole region of the Eastern Mediterranean,” he said.
Suggestion to help reduce the rates of youth smoking, and exposure to second hand smoking included the raising prices through taxation, prohibiting smoking in places that children spend most of their time, including schools, enhancing school education and smoking cessation programs for children, and reducing child exposure to cigarette advertising.
The research said that every year around 600 people in Cyprus die from smoking-related causes, while man-days lost each year cost employers around £100 million and £30 million is spent on health care for smokers.
Oncologist and MEP Dr Adamos Adamou, who is also the chairman of the Antismoking Task Force, set up by the Health Ministry , said the only way to reduce smoking in the future was to begin in schools.
“It is unacceptable that Cyprus is the second highest EU country after Greece when it comes to smoking,” he said.
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