Ramsammy says tobacco use still “alarmingly high”

Lolita Applewhaite

In the fight against Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), tobacco use, which is one of the risk factors, is still at an alarmingly high level, Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy told the 21st Meeting of the CARICOM Council for Human   and Social Development (COHSOD) which opened here on Friday morning.

He noted  that the region’s progress towards meeting its obligations to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was “slow at best,” according to a press release from the CARICOM Secretariat at Turkeyen.  CARICOM member states had agreed to the implementation of the FCTC,