A new study on tobacco consumption in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states revealed that tobacco addiction among men in Kuwait was the highest in the region.
The newly published study by the National Program for Smoking Control showed not only were men in Kuwait more addicted to tobacco but that the total cost of tobacco usage in the country amounted to 1.45 percent of its Gross Domestic Product or around US$1.7 billion annually, which again was the highest among GCC states. Kuwait remains the outlier in the GCC in not enforcing a sales tax on tobacco products.
The study was prepared by Dr. Amal Jassim of the National Program for Smoking Control and a member of the Gulf Tobacco Committee. In a press statement to the media ahead of publishing the study on the economic cost of smoking in the Gulf countries, Dr. Jassim said that although the economic cost of smoking tobacco in the Gulf is relatively less than that seen in developed countries, there should be policies and programs in place aimed at tobacco control and thus achieve significant economic cost savings.
The scientific paper is considered the first of its kind published in the GCC, and will be followed by the publication of another paper on tobacco tax policies in the Gulf. The study will be updated every 3 years according to the plan approved by the Gulf Tobacco Committee.
The study, which started in 2017 included personnel from specialized sectors in each of the ministries of Finance, Trade and Industry, the Public Authority for Manpower and the General Administration of Customs, as well as the Central Administration for Statistics, in addition to the National Program for Smoking Control and the National Center for Health Information.
Dr. Jassim pointed out that the scientific paper dealt extensively with the economic cost of smoking tobacco in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and it was found that the total cost of smoking tobacco was estimated at about 1.25 percent of the total GDP in the GCC countries, which is equivalent to approximately $43 billion. Passive smoking accounted for 20 percent of this cost, while the age group most affected by smoking was found to be the middle-aged male group, and the highest cost was related to respiratory diseases, diabetes and heart disease.
The study showed that 70.4 percent of smoking deaths are due to heart disease, followed by 14.2 percent from tumors, and 6 percent from respiratory diseases. One of the striking results from the study is that type 2 diabetes is the biggest cause of the cost of diseases resulting from smoking, which is exceptional for the six-nation GCC bloc due to wide spread of diabetes in the region with all five of the states with the exception of Oman being among the top ten countries in the world for high rates of diabetes.
Another important take-away from the study is that the age group of 30-34 years old suffered the most from the consequences of passive smoking compared with direct smoking, and this can be explained by the fact that this group was exposed at a younger age to secondhand smoke in childhood and have undergone negative health effects.
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