The Tribune

TWENTY-FIVE percent of Bahamians have smoked at some point in their life, according to a 2017 National Household Drug Survey, which revealed 13 percent of teenagers smoke tobacco.

Bahamians surveyed were between the ages of 12 and 65, with men found to be smoking at a rate four times higher than women.

The findings were released by Health Minister Dr Duane Sands at a press conference to mark World No Tobacco Day on Thursday. The day is celebrated by member states of the World Health Organization to draw public attention to the health and other risks associated with tobacco use.

"A Global Youth Survey conducted among Bahamians teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15 years, showed that 13 per cent smoked tobacco," Mr Sands said.

He flagged links between tobacco use and cardiovascular diseases including stroke, which when combined are the world's leading causes of death.

"World No Tobacco Day hits at the core of my Ministry's mandate to ensure that the highest quality of services for health promotion, health protection and health care are accessible to all people of The Bahamas, Mr Sands continued.

"Further, it coincides with a range of initiatives by my Government aimed at not just treating the health ailments of the Bahamian people but also aggressively moving the paradigm more towards preventive medicine."

The Government was said to be revising the Tobacco Bill to bring a comprehensive approach that will include: the monitoring of tobacco use in The Bahamas; better facilitate prevention policies; protect the Bahamian people from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke by creating and increasing completely smoke-free indoor public spaces and workplaces; strengthen partnerships for smoking cessation programmes and other interventions; implement effective anti-tobacco media campaigns that inform the public, especially the youth, about the harms of tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure; and create a mechanism for the enforcement and levying of fines and penalties for infractions.

Dr Sands said: "My Ministry led a review process involving multiple health and non-health partners from October 2017 to January 2018, which informed recommendations and guidance to the Attorney General's Office, who was given charge of reviewing the draft Bill. I look forward to submitting this to Cabinet and starting the process in the Honourable House of Assembly of passing this Bill."

Legislation to establish an indoor smoking ban was said to be before Cabinet in 2014.

In an interview with The Tribune, acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Delon Brennen said the proposed regulations came as the country neared the end of a five-year window to honour the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), a treaty signed with the World Health Organisation in 2009.

The treaty calls for an advertising ban for tobacco products, and the removal of any incentives to its production and sale.

The FCTC represents the first and only legally binding convention on health, according to Dr Gerry Eijkemans, the Pan American Health Organisation's country representative for The Bahamas and Turks & Caicos at the time.