Bringing honor to the Sultanate of Oman in its fight to control tobacco use, the country topped among Arab countries in reducing tobacco use.
According to the Global Index of Tobacco Industry Interventions in the World for 2021, the Sultanate of Oman ranked 16th globally, and first in the Arab world.
The index, published by the Global Centre for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC), measures efforts by governments to address tobacco industry interference for 80 countries in 2021.
The index is based on seven indicators, which include the level of participation in policy development, tobacco-related corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities alongside benefits to the tobacco industry.
The first is the “level of participation in policy development”, which shows the extent of the tobacco industry’s interference in the formulation of policies related to reducing tobacco consumption.
The second is the “social responsibility activities of tobacco companies”, which is concerned with measuring whether the government receives any contributions from the tobacco industry, or the existence of any partnerships with it.
The third is the “benefits to the tobacco industry” indicator, which measures whether the government grants any incentives, facilities, or exemptions to this industry, and the fourth is the “unnecessary interactions” indicator.
The fifth sub-indicator is entitled “Transparency”, and it measures the extent to which the government discloses its interaction with the tobacco industry.
In more specific terms, tobacco is a leading cause of cancer, as cigarettes contain over 60 cancerous chemicals.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco consumption results in more than seven million deaths due to direct tobacco use, in addition to 1.2 million deaths due to indirect tobacco use.
In the Sultanate of Oman, a string of legislations have been introduced banning smoking in all ministerial and government offices and a ban on the use of tobacco and tobacco-related products by those aged below 18 years have been imposed.
While advertising of tobacco and its derivatives on social media and billboards has now been officially banned, as part of a joint decision from the GCC, the Sultanate of Oman imposed a large excise tax in 2019 that led to increase in prices making tobacco products less affordable.
Tobacco consumption in the country is estimated to be 23 percent among adult males and 1.5 percent among females.
Oman endorses the global voluntary targets with the aim to reduce premature deaths from non-communicable diseases by 25 percent by 2025. Central to this commitment is the 30 percent relative reduction in the prevalence of current tobacco use in persons aged 15 years and older.
