Kingston: A decision by the Jamaican government to expan
d tobacco production is being strongly condemned by anti-smoking advocates who are warning that it will only lead to higher mortality rates in the Caribbean.
In an open letter to Prime Minister Bruce Golding, the (JCTC) says the increased tobacco production flies in the face of the World Health Organisation’s treaty which the country signed more than seven years ago.
The letter was signed by JCTC chairman, Dr Knox Hagley.
He wrote: “The WHO reports that tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced. It kills more than five million people a year – an average of one person every six seconds – and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths. Up to half of current users will eventually die of a tobacco-related disease. Based on current mortality due to tobacco smoking, evidence is that 75% of the mortality from smoking will be in developing countries, and in Jamaica, with a larger percentage of hypertension and diabetes, the evidence is that these diseases will increase mortality to a considerable degree.”
The group is also accusing the government of failing to bring laws to ban smoking in public places, noting that Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago have already done so.
Hagley points to the Port of Spain declaration which Jamaica agreed to back in 2007 to pursue legislation “to limit or eliminate smoking in public places, ban the sale, advertising and promotion of tobacco products to children, insist on effective warning labels and introduce such fiscal measures as will reduce accessibility of tobacco”.
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