By Conrad Prabhu — MUSCAT: March 4 - Oman risks seeing tobacco use soar to a projected 33.3 per cent by the 2025 unless authorities accelerate the rollout of tobacco control policies recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) under its MPOWER initiative. MPOWER, according to newly published study, represents an action plan that spells out six concrete steps that must be implemented if an anticipated upsurge in tobacco consumption in the Sultanate is to be successfully tamped down. The MPOWER initiative stands for: Monitoring of the tobacco epidemic, Protecting people from second hand smoke, Offering cessation services to tobacco users, Warning the public about the dangers of tobacco, Enforcing a ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and Raising taxes and prices of all tobacco products.
The paper, titled Tobacco Control in Oman: It’s Time to Get Serious, has been jointly authored by Dr Jawad al Lawati (Ministry of Health), Ruth M Mabry (Oman Office of the World Health Organisation), and Dr Zakiya al Busaidi (SQU College of Medicine). “Tobacco use in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, which encompasses many Arab countries including Oman, remains one of the greatest challenges facing public health. This region is one of the two regions with the fastest growing consumers of tobacco products and where the prevalence is expected to increase 25 per cent by the year 2025, compared to a decrease in Asia, America, and Europe,” the authors said.
In the Sultanate, the prevalence of tobacco use among Omani men aged 15 years and above was estimated to be 17.9 per cent in 2010.“It is predicted to increase to 21.4 per cent, 26.9 per cent, and 33.3 per cent in 2015, 2020, and 2025, respectively, if tobacco control measures remain static,” the paper warned. According to the study, the MPOWER initiative is imperative to Oman’s goal of achieving a 30 per cent reduction in the prevalence of current tobacco use by persons aged 15 and above by the year 2025. That target was endorsed by the Sultanate after it was adopted by the World Health Assembly as part of a comprehensive global monitoring framework in 2013.
“The initiative is a package of policies and interventions to guide countries in implementing the measures of the (WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control),” the well-known figures behind the study pointed out. “These strategies are extracted from the Convention as six effective demand reduction measures and have shown success when implemented fully. In addition, it stresses the importance of surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation to measure the impact of tobacco control strategies and adjust as needed.”
MPOWER moots the establishment of surveillance systems to monitor the magnitude, patterns, determinants, and consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure. It also advocates for effective legislative, executive and administrative measures to protect people from exposure to second hand smoke in in-door workplaces, public transport, in-door public places and, as appropriate, other public places. Signatories to the Convention, such as Oman, should also work to address tobacco dependence by promoting services for the cessation of tobacco use, according to the paper.
Possible interventions include counselling through regular health services and telephone help-lines and access to pharmacological therapy.
Other key provisions mooted under MPOWER call for steep tariff increases on tobacco products, effective bans on tobacco advertising and sponsorship, and heightened awareness about the dangers of tobacco use.
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