ABU DHABI // Shock tactics should be used to stop children from taking up cigarettes, doctors say.
Lung cancer experts said prevention was far more effective than early detection in helping to reduce the numbers of people dying from the disease in the UAE. Early detection, however, was difficult because symptoms do not usually appear until the cancer has spread to elsewhere in the body.
Dr Aref Chehal, an oncologist at Mafraq Hospital, Abu Dhabi, said children should be put off smoking from the earliest opportunity to reduce the risk of developing lung cancer.
“Cigarette smoking is by far the greatest risk for lung cancer,” he said.
“The early signs and symptoms of lung cancer are non-specific and, as a consequence, the majority of cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, making treatment more difficult and survival outcomes poor.”
According to 2012 figures from Health Authority Abu Dhabi, lung cancer was the UAE’s second most deadly cancer, accounting for 11.8 per cent of all deaths. Breast cancer was the most deadly.
Doctors, however, pointed out that lung cancer was also the most preventable, with tobacco use a contributing factor in 87 per cent of fatalities.
“The UAE population here is young, aged on average between 20 and 50. But lung cancer only usually appears after 15 to 20 years of smoking,” said Dr Chehal.
“When people retire they return to their country, so there is an underestimation of lung cancer cases here in the UAE.”
Getting the message across early with improved messages in schools and public health campaigns, was seen as the most effective way of reducing morbidity rates, experts said.
Last year in the UAE, 168 lung cancer cases were diagnosed.
“Creating awareness about the various types of cancer affecting our society is an integral part of curbing the disease’s implications in the UAE,” said Dr Sawsan Al Madhi, director general of Friends of Cancer Patients, a support network for those with the disease and their families.
Lize De Jonge, the group’s project manager, said cinemas could help by delivering public health messages.
“Lung cancer is not about early detection, but prevention,” she said. “The simple message to young people is to not start smoking. A short film showing the health risks associated with smoking would 100 per cent have an impact on children at the cinema, before they see a movie.
“The message needs to get out to the masses.”
The 180 parties to the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control are obliged by international law to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
But film was only one of the channels responsible for exposing adolescents to imagery of unrestricted smoking.
Studies in the United States have shown that smoking seen in the media was a contributing factor in 37 per cent of adolescents who developed the habit.
In 2014, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimated exposure to on-screen smoking would recruit more than six million young American smokers, of whom two million would eventually die from tobacco-induced diseases.
The WHO has called for governments to enforce an adult classification on films that showed actors smoking.
Dr Fareeha Amber Sadiq, lead consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Camali Clinic in Dubai, said young people were heavily influenced by the social messages.
“I can see how smoking could be seen as exciting and even glamorous in the media,” she said.
“Children may want to look cool, and if one person starts smoking in their peer group that can create pressure for others to start smoking too.
“We need more positive role models who are online, and in films, to advocate for a healthier lifestyle. Online content and movies are more easily accessible, so parental monitoring is important.”
nwebster@thenational.ae