SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- The number of adolescents and young people who consume cigar In Sancti Spíritus it increased and with it the increase in lung diseases in these age groups.
According to a report by Sancti Spiritus RadioAccording to statistics from the National Program for the Prevention and Control of Tobacco Use, in that province more than 15% of smokers are adolescents and young people.
As a result of the increase in this addiction at an early age, lung conditions have increased in adolescent and young smokers.
According to what Jorge Manuel Álvarez Blanco, head of the Provincial Oncology Group, explained to the radio station, every day more young people come to the services of pulmonology from Camilo Cienfuegos General Hospital with lung diseases.
“It is noticeable to any Cuban that smoke and the age of onset is becoming increasingly earlier, and in the eyes of the world, smoking at an early age is already a fashion,” he said.
In Sancti Spíritus, tobacco consumption is directly responsible for at least 13 malignant neoplasms in the nearly 200 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed annually, he said.
Specialist Arelis Gómez said there is an urgent need to strengthen measures to control and prevent tobacco use at these ages.
In his opinion, the lack of compliance with regulations, the weak action of the administrations and the insufficient fines will lead to smoking, especially at an early age, which will continue to cause irreversible chronic diseases and impoverishment of the family economy.
Cuban authorities announced earlier this year that retail prices for cigars and tobacco would be increased because the previous prices were not enough to cover all the costs and expenses related to the production, industrial processing and marketing of both products.
At that time, they also indicated that the sales limit will be maintained at four packs per month per consumer over 18 years of age, subject to availability of the product.
The increase in cost does not represent a brake on cigarette consumption.
During 2022, smoking, along with alcohol and hypertension, was one of the diseases causing nine out of ten deaths that occurred on the Island every day.
78% of Cubans surveyed by the National Institute of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology (INHEM) began smoking before the age of 20. The survey also revealed that heavy smokers accounted for 11.4%.
Exposure to tobacco and its relationship with the early onset of heart disease, strokes and many other illnesses remains a concern in Cuba, and the number of adolescents who start smoking increases every day.
