Teach children deadly consequences of smoking at school, says specialist

Dr Bodi Saicharan, a specialist in respiratory medicine at Abu Dhabi’s Burjeel Hospital, said preventing the next generation of smokers lies in educating the youth when they are at an impressionable age.

ABU DHABI // Children should be educated about the deadly consequences of tobacco use as early as primary school age.

Dr Bodi Saicharan, a specialist in respiratory medicine at Abu Dhabi’s Burjeel Hospital, said reducing the number of smokers in the next generation lay in educating today’s children when they were at an impressionable age.

“Hit it hard at an early stage,” he said. “At the age of eight or nine, teach them and let them know that smoking kills. There need to be a lot of educational programmes.”

His warning comes as a World Health Organisation report addressed tobacco use among youths between the ages of 13 and 15. It found that in the UAE, 16.5 per cent of boys and 8.4 per cent of girls in this age group admitted to using tobacco, whether that be cigarettes, cigars, shisha or medwakh pipes. In the UK, 10.5 per cent of males between the ages of 13 and 15 use tobacco; in the US 14.1 per cent of boys smoke; and 2.1 per cent of boys in Canada smoke tobacco.

The report also looked at tobacco control measures in the 194 WHO member states.

“We have to work on awareness to ensure that teenagers are not able to buy cigarettes,” said Dr Mohanad Diab, a consultant in medical oncology at Abu Dhabi’s NMC Hospital.

Strict measures preventing minors getting their hands on tobacco will curb smoking rates among adolescents, he said.

It’s not just youths that are the issue. More than a quarter – 28.1 per cent – of the adult male population and 2.4 per cent of the adult female population in the UAE are smokers.

The UAE has been applauded by the WHO for the efforts it has carried out in combating smoking.

In 2008 the UAE introduced measures such as cessation clinics and anti-tobacco campaigns and last year it enforced a blanket ban on tobacco advertising, promotions and sponsorship.

The UAE was also named among the 25 highest-achieving countries last year for the treatment it offers to curb tobacco dependence. The report noted the UAE had a national toll-free service to help smokers stub out the habit and that costs for nicotine-replacement therapy and cessation services were all or partly covered in the Emirates.

Yet more work needs to be done, said Dr Ala Alwan, the WHO regional director for the eastern Mediterranean.

“The UAE has taken major steps in the measure of banning [the] advertising, promotion and sponsorship of all tobacco products and it is ranked among the top countries in this policy in addition to being one of the top countries in the area of offering help to smokers to quit,” he said.

“However, more efforts are needed in other areas, such as implementing high taxes on all tobacco products in the UAE.”

More on tobacco use in the UAE:

■ More taxation needed to curb smoking, WHO report finds

■ Cheap cigarettes in UAE bring a high cost to health, doctor says