Smoking claims one life per day in Malta

By Marika Azzopardi

One person dies from a smoking-related illness per day in Malta, according to statistics compiled by the health authorities.

No wonder then that the government has made a bid to give the launching of the fifth ‘Quit and Win’ competition organised by the Health Promotion Department in collaboration with WHO a high profile. In past years Quit and Win was very successful locally, as proved by an evaluation study of Q&W 2000. A total of 77% of participants managed to quit smoking during the month of the competition. Contacted a year later, these participants were generally positive about the outcome of their endeavour towards a healthier lifestyle, with 52% of respondents having stopped smoking altogether and the remaining 16% smoking less than they did before the event.

In a ‘MaltaToday’ interview, heart surgeon Alex Manche described how much of his work focuses mainly on solving complications arising from smoking. This is not to mention the fact that smoking is also the cause of various non-communicable diseases which are the most common cause of death locally. These include cancer of various body parts, namely the trachea, bronchus and lung. According to the National Mortality Registry of the Department of Health Information, in 2001 241 males and 115 females suffered deaths attributed to smoking. 90% of these deaths were from cancer of trachea/ bronchus/ lung, 75% of these deaths were from chronic bronchitis/emphysema whilst 25% of deaths were from ischaemic heart disease.

The Quit and Win campaign, apart from encouraging people to stop smoking at least during the month of May, is also urging them to increase physical exercise with the ‘caqlaq ghal sahhtek’ campaign. This follows along the lines of last year’s slogan ‘caqlaq’. ‘Move for health – at least 30 mins/day’ is focusing on physical benefits which can be had from regular exercise. This would help in bringing down rates of violence among young people, promote tobacco-free lifestyles, decrease risky behaviour such as illicit drug use, improve physical and mental agility in the old and donate a healthier lease of life all around.

Smokers will be invited to hand over applications for participation in Quit and Win 2002, as from 5 April through to 1 May 2002 which is the official quit day. Each smoker will have to stop smoking for four weeks and winners will be announced on 31 May 2002 which is World No Tobacco Day. Support and information will be available for all smokers who participate. Prizes range from free membership in a gym to cash vouchers for home gym equipment.

Further information is available from the Health Promotion Department on 21231247.