Carpha: E-cigarettes can damage children’s brains

AS World No Tobacco Day is commemorated on May 31, a warning comes from executive director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (Carpha) Dr Joy St John that, “Smokeless does not mean harmless.”

St John is warning that nicotine in e-cigarettes is a highly addictive drug and can damage children’s developing brains.

“Children and adolescents who use e-cigarettes at least double their chance of smoking cigarettes later in life.

"Preventing tobacco product use among youth is therefore critical. It is important that we educate children and adolescents about the harms of nicotine and tobacco product use. We must work to prevent future generations from seeing such products as “normal”.”

Grow food, not tobacco is the focus of this year’s World No Tobacco Day which advocates for ending tobacco cultivation and switching to more sustainable crops that improve food security and nutrition. It also informs the public on the dangers of direct use, and exposure to tobacco.

In a message in observance of this event, Carpha noted that tobacco use remains a major public health concern in the Caribbean.

“There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke. The use of tobacco products in any form harms nearly every organ of the body, irrespective of whether it is smoked, smokeless, or electronic.

“Of all the forms of tobacco use, most common in the Caribbean region is cigarette smoking. Cigarette smoking is the number one risk factor for lung cancer. Using other tobacco products such as cigars or pipes also increases the risk for this disease.

“Second-hand smoke exposure causes stroke, lung cancer, and coronary heart disease in adults, and acute respiratory infections and severe asthma in children. It is a preventable risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which are the leading cause of death, disease and disability among Caribbean people.”

Carpha provided data to demonstrate that while in the Caribbean region (non-Latin Caribbean, excluding Haiti), non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of 78.6 per cent of total death, 30.8 per cent of cardiovascular diseases and 17.2 per cent of cancers which lead to death due to NCD’s are both linked to tobacco use.

“Many of these persons die in the prime of their lives before the age of 70. The prevalence of smokers for overall tobacco products ranged from 57.2 per cent prevalence (95 per cent CI 48.4 to 65.4 per cent) to 16.2 per cent (95 per cent CI 11.2 to 23.0 per cent).”

According to the Report on Tobacco Control in the Region of the Americas (2018) Caribbean countries have the highest levels of tobacco experimentation before the age of ten.

In 2008, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) endorsed the recommendation to ban smoking in public spaces. Later, in 2012, Caricom regulated a standard for labelling retail packages of tobacco products with health warnings. Caribbean civil society organisations (CSOs), working in collaboration with local governments and international partners, have led the charge in fighting for significant gains in tobacco control in the Caribbean region.

Dr Heather Armstrong, Head, Chronic Disease and Injury advanced that reducing the harm caused by tobacco use requires a collective approach, where government, civil society, and the individual play a critical role.

She urged member states to work together to prevent and reduce the use of all forms of tobacco products, and scale-up efforts to implement their commitments under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control with a focus on youths of the region.

“By doing so, the negative impact of smoking and its consequences on the health of our people, especially the younger generation, and the tremendous burden on the economies of the countries in our region, will greatly be reduced,” Armstrong said.