A ban on smoking in public places in The Bahamas is in the works, according to Minister of Health Dr. Perry Gomez, who said the government is hoping to table legislation to that effect sometime early next year.
Gomez was speaking during a press conference to announce the introduction of a Global School Health Survey and a Global Youth Tobacco Survey, which will be carried out in schools across the country next week.
“The tobacco survey is also important because The Bahamas is presently drafting legislation to implement the [World Health Organization’s] framework control on tobacco which, ultimately, will lead to the elimination of tobacco use in public spaces, and to avoid the dangers of second hand smoke to women in particular, but to everybody,” he said.
He said the school survey is also critical in helping to determine what some of the future trends may be as it relates to smoking.
Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald explained that the Global Youth Tobacco Survey is a global standard to systematically monitor the use of tobacco by the youth population of a country.
“It is a nationally representative school based study of students 13 to 15-years-old, using a consistent and standard protocol across countries,” he said. “It is intended to generate comparable data within and across countries.”
Fitzgerald said the survey results will help to enhance the country’s capacity to design, implement and evaluate tobacco control in preventive mechanisms and implement reaction measure.
As for the Global Health School Health Survey, Fitzgerald said it is designed to develop a current database on health matters.
He said information will be collected on non-communicable diseases, sexually communicable diseases and obesity.
The ministry will use the information gathered to develop a health education campaign to sensitize the general public and to raise awareness on healthy eating habits, Fitzgerald said.
Gomez added that the global health survey will be a new dimension for the country and will create a lot more information for health planners.
“This is good stuff,” he said. Testing will begin next week in 25 public and private schools. Parental consent will be obtained for students to participate in the survey.
The surveys are being initiated by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization and the Pan American Heath Organization.
By: Krystel Rolle
Guardian Staff Reporter
