Twenty-Three percentage of Bahrainis are smokers, survey says

TDT | Manama  

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

The current rate of smokers among the citizens in Bahrain stands at 22.3 per cent, according to latest statistics revealed by the National Health Survey. The data is based on sample studies conducted as part of the survey, which said sheesha users constituted 66.2pc of smokers in Bahrain.

The remaining smokers resort to either cigarettes or e-cigarettes, the survey points out. While 3.9pc of those surveyed were intermittent smokers, close to 77pc said they have never touched a cigarette or sheesha pipe. Males had a clear domination in the gender break up with 23.5pc of males and 3.3pc of females surveyed identifying themselves as smokers.

The statistics attained great importance as Bahrain marked Anti-Tobacco Day yesterday with an aim to persuade smokers and tobacco users to come out of the addiction. According to the head of Bahrain Anti-Smoking Society Majdi Bakri Yassin, there must be frequent campaigns from the part of governmental departments, civil societies, groups and individuals to realise the magnitude of the problem before taking appropriate measures to pull people out of tobacco addiction.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that the global tobacco epidemic kills nearly six million people annually, including more than 600,000 non-smokers who die from inhaling smoke indirectly, and if necessary measures are not taken, this epidemic will kill more than eight million annually by 2030. As part of the global campaign to protect the environment and people, the World Health Organisation adopted this year’s slogan as “Tobacco: a threat to our environment.”

The campaign aims to raise awareness among the public about the environmental impact of tobacco from cultivation, production, distribution and waste, apart from alerting people about the dangers of using tobacco of all kinds and to protect future generations. The use, manufacture, and cultivation of tobacco, cigarette butts, microplastics, and e-cigarette waste poison water, soil, and beaches with chemicals and toxic waste, contributing towards soil degradation and the land’s ability to support the growth of any crops or plants.

Cigarette butts are toxic to aquatic microorganisms and fish, in addition to polluting fresh and saltwater. An estimated one in ten adult deaths are caused by tobacco use worldwide. The most prominent diseases resulting from tobacco use are lung cancer and other types of cancer and vascular diseases, including heart disease, stroke, chronic bronchitis and emphysema.