Tobacco Consumption Rates For Men In Kuwait Are The Highest In Gulf

A recently published study on tobacco consumption rates in the Gulf countries revealed that men in Kuwait were among the highest in the GCC countries, Al Jarida daily reports.

A newly published medical study revealed that the rates of tobacco consumption for men in Kuwait are the highest in the GCC countries, and that the total tobacco costs amounted to 1.45% of the GDP, equivalent to approximately $1609 million, which is the highest cost in the GCC countries. Kuwait is the only country in the GCC that has not enforced a sales tax on tobacco products so far.

The reporter of the National Program for Smoking Control and a member of the Gulf Tobacco Committee, Dr. Amal Jassim, in a press statement on the occasion of publishing the results of the study of the economic cost of smoking in the Gulf countries, that although the economic cost of smoking tobacco in the Gulf is relatively less than that seen in developed countries, there should be policies and programs in place aimed at tobacco control and thus achieve significant economic cost savings.

This scientific paper is considered the first of its kind based on the Gulf, and will be followed by the publication of another paper on tobacco tax policies in the Gulf. The study will be updated every 3 years according to the plan approved by the committee in 2022.

The study started in 2017, and included specialized sectors from each of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Manpower Authority, the General Administration of Customs, the Central Administration for Statistics, in addition to the National Program for Smoking Control and the National Center for Health Information.

Jassim pointed out that the scientific paper dealt extensively with the economic cost of smoking tobacco in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and it was found that the total cost of smoking tobacco was estimated at about 1.25% of the total GDP in the GCC countries, which is equivalent to approximately $ 43 billion (purchasing power) approximately. The equivalent of 14307 million dollars, and passive smoking accounted for 20% of the cost, and the age group most affected by smoking was the middle-aged male group, and the higher cost was related to respiratory diseases, diabetes and heart disease.

The study showed that 70.4% of smoking deaths are due to heart disease, followed by 14.2% of tumors, and 6% of respiratory diseases.

One of the results of this study is that type 2 diabetes is the biggest cause of the cost of diseases resulting from smoking, which is exceptional for the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, due to the spread of diabetes in the societies, where all of them, except Oman, are among the top ten countries in the world for high rates of diabetes.

One of the important results indicated in the study is that the age group of 30-34 years old suffered from the consequences of passive smoking compared from direct smoking, and this can be explained by the fact that this group was exposed at a younger age to secondhand smoke in childhood and have undergone negative health effects.

 

Source: Timeskuwait

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