Gareth Manning , Gleaner Writer

( L - R ) Boyne, Lewis-Fuller, Bernard, Goodleigh

Health professionals have raised concern that more persons could engage in tobacco smoking to ease their minds amid the global economic crisis.

This could mean more problems with nutrition.

"The quick fix is that when we are under pressure we light up," said Dr Michael Boyne, senior lecturer at the Tropical Medicine Research Unit at the University of the West Indies, at a Gleaner Editors' Forum at the company's North Street offices in Kingston yesterday.

Health officials attending the forum also said the global crisis could affect nutrition in households where breadwinners are heavy smokers.

"We already have a food problem globally and we already have a financial problem globally on top of that. If we have persons who are addicted to tobacco to the extent that they would prefer smoking rather than eating, it erodes the family's disposable income so their purchasing power for food is reduced," said Dr Eva Lewis-Fuller, director of health promotion and protection in the Ministry of Health.

Lewis-Fuller added that because smokers do not mind substituting cigarettes for food, it also compromises their own nutrition and health.

She said tobacco addiction is a significant contributor to the decline in nutrition.

"It contributes considerably depending on the proportion of your disposable income that you use on tobacco," she said.

The concern is greater for the poorer classes, who, studies have shown, do not necessarily spend less on cigarettes when the State increases levies in an effort to discourage smoking. Instead they spend less on other necessities including food to feed their habit.

Smoking is also a fuel for diabetes, which is among the leading causes of death in Jamaica.

"Diabetes and smoking is the deadly duo," said Owen Bernard, executive director of the Diabetes Association of Jamaica.

The practitioners are also worried that many young girls are now smoking to maintain a slim build.

Diabetes RISK

Boyne said while tobacco lowers appetite, it impacts on how the body distributes fat. "So you weigh less but you have more fat surrounding your organs. That fat surrounding your organs is the most metabolically dangerous fat and it dramatically raises your risk for diabetes," he said.

There are about 150,000 Jamaicans aged 15 to 74 suffering from the disease. It is estimated that each year, US$419.3 million (J$32 billion) is incurred in direct and indirect costs to treat the disease.

It is against this background that Lloyd Goodleigh, the general secretary of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions, wants the Government to ban smoking in the workplace as it moves to make the practice illegal in public places.

"If we start it in the workplace it is less controversial," he said. "If you start in the workplace, then people become accustomed to not going to work and smoke and you gradually and incrementally tighten the screws," he said.

gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com