Ahmed Lizneen was just 14 when he first smoked. What started as an “experiment for fun” has now become a habit – he has struggled to quit over the years, but to no avail.
“It was my friends who gave the cigarette to me first. I had it for fun. Then I also started buying. Not the whole pack, but a few cigarettes at a time as it was cheaper. Slowly it became an addiction. I tried to stop many times, but just could not,” Lizneen explained.
Alarmingly high tobacco consumption
Statistics reveal an alarming proportion of the Maldivian population – especially youth – have succumbed by one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced: the tobacco epidemic.
The Center for Community Health and Disease Control (CCHDC) estimates that the 44 percent of the total population use tobacco, mainly by smoking.
According to the Maldives Demography and Health Survey (MDHS) 2009, 42 percent of people in the age group 20-24 are smokers while 20 percent of 15-19 years age group smoke.
Similar findings in a 2007 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) showed that nice percent of the surveyed students are either smokers or have smoked in the past – while 48.7 percent students are exposed to second-hand smoke at home and 69.4 percent of students are exposed to it elsewhere.
A worrying trend has been observed with rising numbers of girls becoming smokers.
Statistics show that overall tobacco use prevalence is high compared to international standard with 57 percent of men and 29 percent of women having used some form of tobacco.
Based on customs data, in 2010 alone 346 million cigarettes were imported into the Maldives at a cost of Rf124 million (US$8 million) – a disproportionate figure considering the 350,000 populace. In 2009, Rf110 million was spent to import 348 million cigarettes – mostly included well known brands such as marlborough, camel, and mild seven.
Based on those figures, the average Maldivian smoker consumes 2312 cigarettes a year – six a day.
Leading public health experts have raised their voice on the issue.
Former Director General of the CCHDC Dr Ahmed Jamsheed wrote on his blog in July 201 that the “available statistics on smoking in the Maldives are alarming”.
“The Maldives still seems to be on the rising curve of the tobacco epidemic (we can still change this) and it will take several years to peak and show the full health impact of smoking and tobacco products. There is a lag of many years between the health effects of tobacco and the time people start smoking,” he wrote.
Meanwhile Ahmed Afaal, a public health service manager and tobacco prevalence researcher, says much needs to be done to control the growing “menace”.
“To protect the majority of the smoking Maldivians from death before they reach their potential life expectancy, strong laws are needed to reduce the supply and demand for tobacco,” he wrote on his blog in October 2011. “We are way behind!”
source: www.tobacco-news.net
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