WITH THE latest statistics showing that up to one in three secondary school students in Cyprus are smokers, the health ministry and the police are launching an anti-smoking campaign.
“Smoking is the only cause of death that is preventable in the world today. It kills six million people a year, 600,000 of which have only been exposed to passive smoking. Unless urgent action is taken, tobacco will kill more than one billion people this century,” said health minister Androulla Agrotou.
She was speaking at a news conference to present the police’s anti-smoking campaign.
Part of the campaign will focus on drivers and smoking in the car and will start on Sunday and last a week.
Police officers will distribute flyers to drivers to inform them of the law.
It is illegal to smoke in any vehicles carrying anyone aged 16 or younger and offenders face a fine of up to €1,700 and/or up to six months’ imprisonment.
Passive smoking in cars is 23 times more harmful than it would be in a smoking area, but the public needs to become aware of the health risks of smoking in cars, Agrotou said.
So the police will intensify checks, reporting and fining law breakers, police spokesman Andreas Angelides said yesterday.
But despite previous and ongoing anti-smoking campaigns, schoolchildren continue to smoke.
Academic at the Cyprus University of Technology, Costas Christofi, presented a recent study that collected questionnaires from 1,318 secondary school students. In lyceums, 32 per cent of students consume tobacco products including shishas, and in gymnasiums some 17 per cent do, Christofi said.
Cabinet has approved an anti-smoking policy created by an inter-departmental team following guidelines from World Health Organisation and the European Union. The policy aims to prevent children and youth from starting to smoke so they do not develop an addiction, to help smokers quit and to promote a smoke-free environment through legislative and other measures, Agrotou said.
She said the ministry was in the process of appointing a national committee to implement and supervise related activities.
In the meantime, police report a drop of 29 per cent in charges related to smoking in cars with minors, something they attributed yesterday to the public learning to follow the law.
