About 3 pct of Kuwaiti public school students vape: Health

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Seven smoking-prevention clinics opened

KUWAIT CITY, May 31, (KUNA): Kuwait’s Ministry of Health (MoH) said that raising public awareness and establishing more smoking- prevention clinics are the best ways to open channels of communications with citizens and residents in Kuwait.

This manifested in the opening of seven accredited clinics under the umbrella of the national program to combat smoking.

Furthermore, increasing taxes on tobacco products and reducing their affordability would also contribute in limiting such epidemic, Rapporteur of the Standing Committee of the National Program for Combating Smoking in the Ministry of Health and the National Communication Officer for Tobacco Control with the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Amal Al-Yahya told KUNA.

Her remarks came to celebrate the UN’s “World No Tobacco Day”, which falls on May 31 every year. Restructuring the anti-smoking national program came to revolutionize amendments of the national legislation concerned and is in line with international agreements, resolutions and developments, she noted.

The latest MoH statistics indicated that rate of smoking in Kuwaiti society increased to 39.2 percent among men citizens and 3.3 percent among women citizens.

The study confirmed that 16.7 percent of students at public schools smoked between the ages 13 to 15 years. The proportion of male and female students smoking cigarettes, vapes and the likes amounted to 2.7 percent, spread between 3.1 percent males and 2.3 percent females, the study showed, adding that Kuwaiti citizens start smoking at age 17, while females start at age 21.

Male smokers smoke 20 cigarettes daily, while female smokers smoke eight cigarettes a day. Dr Al-Yahya confirmed that the ministry is still operating the distribution program of (nicotine patches) to help smokers quit, stressing that Kuwait is probably the only country in the Middle East so far that provides free medical consultation and treatment, with quitting rate of about 30 percent.

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