Although the number of adult smokers has been on the decline in recent years, the trend among children and youth in Slovakia is completely different. According to the latest surveys, approximately 21 percent of people older than 18 years of age are smokers.
However, “since 2002 every year there’s been a drop 2 percent on average in this number” adds Robert Ochaba of Slovakia's Public Health Office. The expert claims it could be ascribed to developments in the prices of cigarettes in Slovakia, where the cost of tobacco products has gone up considerably over the past few years. “According to data of the World Bank and other economic organisations, price is one of the significant factors that influence consumption.”
While increases in terms of smoking among children and young people are only slight, as many as 45-50 percent of secondary school pupils are reported to have smoked a cigarette, Robert Ochaba points out. And while not all of these children are everyday smokers they could begin smoking on a regular basis in the future. The chances of this happening are boosted if parents of these children are smokers themselves, adds Robert Ochaba.
Slovakia has implemented a number of legislative changes to boost the protection of non-smokers and to curb access for children to cigarettes, claims Slovakia’s Public Health Office, however a lot more needs to be done, adds Ochaba of the Public Health Office claiming that the country should follow the lead of Ireland and Great Britain and ban smoking completely in bars and pubs and it should also enforce the law more strictly.
