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Health forum seeks ways to cut smoking, sugar intake

Saturday October 15 2016
smoking

A busy smoking zone in Nairobi. There are 1.4 billion smokers on the planet today. PHOTO | FILE

Health stakeholders are pushing governments to come up with national strategies to cut the harm caused by smoking and excessive intake of sugar, as part of a wider campaign to stem the growing burden of non-communicable diseases on society.

At the recent Middle East and Africa Health Forum in Dubai, scientists, healthcare providers, policymakers and private sector companies discussed how preventable risk factors such as poor diet, high blood pressure, high body mass index (an indicator of obesity and overweight) and smoking are contributing to the growing burden of non-communicable diseases in the two regions.

“For the first time in history, the new generation of children, the millennials, will be worse off economically and also from a health perspective,” said Dr Nasim Ashraf, chief executive of DNA HealthCorp. “For this to change, the whole system, which is often skewed towards treatment rather than prevention, needs to change.”

Reducing harm

The conference, dubbed “Harm Reduction for Healthier Societies,” took place from October 5-6.

Nicolife chief executive Delon Human said there is an urgent need to communicate the need for “harm reduction.”

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There are 1.4 billion smokers on the planet today and another 1.4 billion people are deemed overweight. Forum attendees recommended that existing public health policies and strategies be revisited to inform the formulation of new, evidence-based measures for harm reduction.

There was consensus that too often policy makers, scientists and industry players work in isolation when they need to be engaging more closely to develop better solutions. 

The forum called for more alternatives and innovative solutions, including the establishment of an independent research fund or institution to evaluate and develop solutions in the area of tobacco.

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