Good morning and welcome to Bermuda.
On behalf of the Ministry of Health, it is my pleasure to start the morning by extending a warm, welcome to our friends from the islands of Anguilla and Cayman; representatives from the World Health Organization; the Pan American Health Organization: Public Health England, technical officers from the Bermuda Government, the Ministry of Health and a special acknowledgement to our partners from the health and community sectors; representatives of the tobacco retail and wholesale sector in Bermuda.
I would like to welcome back to Bermuda Dr. Sarah Hill from the University of Edinburgh who was on island earlier this year conducting research regarding the adoption of standard tobacco packaging in the UK Overseas Territories.
As we have shared with Dr. Hill and members of Public Health England, the primary responsibility and our mission at the Ministry of Health, is to make Bermuda’s citizens healthier in our fight against chronic diseases such as cancer, COPD and diabetes. To that end, smoking tobacco is a risk factor that we are consistently working to address.
Bermuda's Tobacco Act 2015 includes provisions intended to protect children from smoking by providing laws controlling the sale and use of tobacco and cigarettes. For example:
- Smoking is prohibited anywhere on the premises of a school or educational facility including the outdoor areas.
- Tobacco flavorings such as, strawberry, grape, vanilla, coconut and cherry, that are appealing to minors are prohibited.
- Cigarettes cannot be sold from vending machines nor in close proximity to candies and toys unless they are covered or concealed.
- Counter top displays of tobacco are prohibited.
- Branded products such as shirts, hats, pens, pencils, bags and lighters are prohibited.
- The fine for selling tobacco to a minor is $10,000
While our Tobacco Act 2015, has very specific regulations to prohibit smoking statistics reveal that our work is far from over, there is much more work to be done.
A recent survey conducted locally indicate that children start smoking in Bermuda before age 18 - the legal age to purchase tobacco and the average age that young people start smoking in Bermuda is 17 years and 10 months. Obviously, there is more work to be done to prevent and assuage the desire for our youth to start using tobacco products.
Examination of mortality data for Bermuda in 2018 reveals that smoking led to around 11% of deaths last year. By gender, smoking led to around 15% of deaths among men and 8% of deaths among women.
There is more work to be done.
In total there were 58 deaths attributable to smoking in 2018 which is just over one per week. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Bermuda among men and women and most cancer deaths locally are due to lung cancer. This includes not just deaths from cancer but also chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) aka emphysema.
As you are well aware, all tobacco is damaging to health and smoking is a leading preventable cause of death. Indeed, smoking kills, as it says right on the package.
So what more can be done to protect children and young people from taking up tobacco use in the first place?
We are here today to hear more about standard packaging of cigarettes and there will be an opportunity to have constructive and frank discussion with leaders in the field of tobacco control.
Countries such as Australia, Ireland, and the UK now require cigarettes to be sold in packages which are far less colorful and attractive and which include larger text and visual health warnings of the dangers of smoking.
The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control or FCTC is a 2003 Public Health Treaty that guides and aligns tobacco control work of member states. The UK Government has expressed a commitment to support UK overseas territories in implementation of the FCTC.
We need to do more, and the Ministry of Health is committed to what is necessary to change behavior and the appeal of using tobacco by our younger and vulnerable citizens. Our commitment is to learn and then implement methods that adjust tobacco promotion. We have to, it is up to us to help save our youth from the unhealthy use of tobacco products, it is our duty and it is the Ministry of Health’s mission.
Thank you and I hope that you have a productive and successful meeting.
