Durban - Seven percent of South African children start smoking when they are under 10, according to new statistics.
And one in five children in grades 8 to 11 are tobacco smokers, says Dr Vash Mungal-Singh, chief executive of the Heart and Stroke Foundation SA.
Even children who have not got the habit are affected as “three out of four are exposed to harmful second-hand smoke,” he said.
Mungal-Singh was speaking about World No Tobacco Day on Saturday May 31, which highlights health risks associated with tobacco use and advocates policies to reduce consumption.
While smokers might huff and puff about increased taxes (they went up 68c for a pack of 20 in the February budget), the foundation said compared with other countries, South Africa “has some catching up to do”.
Cigarette excise taxes, at 52 percent of the retail price, are well below the 70 percent recommended by the World Health Organisation and the 66-80 percent recommended by the World Bank.
The best way to reduce tobacco use among children was to increase the price of tobacco products through tax hikes, said Dr Yussuf Saloojee of the National Council Against Smoking.
As prices went up, fewer and fewer children started smoking, he said.
Research showed that a tax that increased tobacco prices by 10 percent decreased tobacco consumption among adults by about 4 percent in high-income countries and by up to eight percent in most low and middle-income countries.
The smoking statistics were scary, the foundation pointed out, but even knowing them didn’t seem to stop people. ”To put it into perspective, tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death globally and is responsible for killing one in 10 adults, or one person every six seconds.
“Smoking almost triples the risk of heart disease, more than doubles the risk of having a stroke and can lead to numerous forms of cancer,” Mungal-Singh said.
And, as well as having “many other negative effects of health,” it also caused blood vessels to narrow, leading to raised blood pressure and more chance of blood clots forming, all resulting in reduced blood flow to the heart and brain.”
The good news was that “quitting smoking almost immediately improves your health”, Mungal-Singh said.
Daily News