University goes ‘Smoke-Free’

Jun 03, 2010 News

The students and staff of the University of Guyana, on Tuesday last, committed to the global fight against smoking and its related ills.
Considering that it was World No Tobacco Day the student body, through Sherod Duncan, University of Guyana Student Society President, committed to observing the ‘Smoke-Free Spaces’ which were being instituted. Meanwhile on the administration’s behalf Acting Vice Chancellor Tota Mangar welcomed the initiative and pledged the full support of the University’s 5,300 students and 700 staff in ensuring that the commitment is upheld.
Duncan in his presentation noted that “the verdict on smoking is in … we have a responsibility for the safety of ourselves and others.” He said, “The students commit to this wholesale and embrace it on both campuses.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Emmanuel Cummings, Head of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, who chaired the event, noted that this move was to ensure that the next generation of nation builders leave the University not only educated to undertake the monumental task, but healthy as well.
In his feature address, Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy called tobacco a scourge and a killer. He said,” It’s not even a killer that lurks in the dark; it’s a killer that we pay to kill us.” He commended the University for taking the bold move to create its Smoke-Free Spaces pointing out that Guyana is only one of three countries in all of the Americas to have taken such a bold stance.
Ramsammy pointed out that currently all of the Public and Private health facilities of the country, including Ministry of Health buildings, are Smoke-Free Zones. This designation also extends to the buildings that fall under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, such as schools and Ministry buildings as well.
The Minister noted, however, that for the University of Guyana – which is an autonomous body – to make such a decision of its own accord, says good things about the institution. He said that it shows that the University is not just a place of education, but one of the drivers of development in the country. As an example, Ramsammy pointed out that more than 95 percent of the professionals at the Ministry of Health are either students or graduates of the University.
He also encouraged the intellectual debate that currently rages over whether or not smoking is a fundamental right for all and therefore should not be banned.
Ramsammy contended that, “Nothing belongs in the realm of fundamental rights if in exercising that right it takes away or affects the right of someone else.”
According to the Minister, of the 4000 chemicals emitted in cigarette smoke, at least are carcinogenic. And while a smoker gets a filtered dose of that concoction, a person nearby inhaling that second hand smoke gets it all undiluted. He pointed out that tobacco use contributes to at least six of the world’s top 10 killers such as diabetes, hypertension and various cancers.
The country spends almost $6B per annum on treatment of Non-communicable Chronic Diseases – money, that the Minister stressed, could have been better used elsewhere rather than on the treatment of diseases caused by poor lifestyle choices.
He said, “It is time that Guyana turns its back on tobacco” and noted that there is a need for such strictures as higher taxes on the products, but that at the end of the day the matter comes back to choice.
According to the World Health Organisation, every 6.5 seconds someone dies from tobacco use. Of the 58 million deaths reported every year more than 5 million of those are tobacco related.
As Sherod Duncan puts it in his presentation, apply that number of deaths to Guyana and the country’s population would be wiped out several times over in the space of a year.
Studies have also noted that smokers who start lighting up in their teens (which accounts for some 70 per cent of smokers) and continue for two decades or more will lose almost 20 to 25 years of their lives than those who never smoke.

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