Kurz vor Ende des Welt-Nichtrauchertags ein Artikel zum Noch-Raucherparadies Zypern:
Cypriots number two in European smokers’ league
Action plan to be launched
against the killer habit
By Demetra Molyva
ABOUT 39% of Cypriots are smokers, ranking second in Europe behind the Greeks who are "the champions." Health Minister Haris Charalambous said this week.
At a news conference marking World Anti-Smoking Day, he said that 16% to 18% of girls and 20%-25% of boys in Cyprus’s lyceums were smokers.
The minister said that smoking in the EU kills 650,000 people a year and 80,000 die as a result of passive smoking.
Charalambous also noted that, according to experts, 25% of cancer deaths and 15% of all deaths are the result of nicotine intake.
He noted that many measures had been taken on the island, including the Smoking Law, which was fully in line with EU rules.
He noted that the law against smoking in Cyprus was strict but there were still many problems in its implementation and the island had not managed to achieve the levels of achievement that other EU countries had.
He said the Health Ministry’s top priority had been the preparation of an action plan against smoking, and they had asked the Harvard School of Public Health and the Environment to prepare one. This had been ready since January when a Smoking Monitoring Body was established to implement it.
Charalambous said that many other anti-smoking programmes were underway, including lectures for school pupils.
He said that the Greeks ranked first in the European smokers’ league followed by Cypriots and then Hungarians and Bulgarians with 36%, Poles at 35% and the Czechs and the Estonians at 34%.
At low levels were Swedes with 18% of them being smokers, Portugal, with 24%, and Slovakia and Malta at 25%.
Referring to smoking in the workplace, Charalambous said that that one in three Europeans was exposed to smoking during their working hours.
He explained that 96% of Irish workers were not exposed to tobacco during working hours, while in Greece only 15% were not exposed. Those who were most exposed worked in restaurants and bars.
According to psychologist Maria Karekla, a major study that is currently being carried out on smoking in schools showed that students use smoking as a way to fight stress and depression, while many start smoking in places where they are having fun.
Karekla said that, on the basis of the results of the study which will be announced in June, prevention programmes will be launched that will mobilise the Health and Education ministries against smoking in schools.
Lesezeichen