8 March 2006
Efforts should be made to protect women and girls from the vigorous
marketing of tobacco and the harmful effects of alcohol, Health Minister Dr
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said during the joint sitting of parliamentary debate
to mark the International Women's Day, 8 March, in Cape Town.
"We are aware that tobacco companies have increasingly turned their focus to
the developing world, with aggressive marketing campaigns aimed at women and
girls," said Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.
The World Health Organisation says that in many countries in the developed
and developing world "lights" and "low smoke" cigarettes are the preferred
brand of women who may believe that they are healthier products. The tobacco
industry has exploited this belief and promoted the image of cigarettes as
having low risks.
"The truth is that a cigarette is a carefully designed nicotine delivery
system and it is bad for anyone's health, neither itâs a women nor men," said
Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.
Minister Tshabalala-Msimang told parliament that government was concerned
about the harmful effect of alcohol on women particularly as a factor in
perpetuating domestic violence and foetal alcohol syndrome.
Children born to mothers who were drinking during pregnancy may develop
foetal alcohol syndrome. These children are stunted in growth, moderately
mentally handicapped with averages IQ of 65 (Normal IQ level is at 100). These
children have severe behavioural problems and may have heart, spinal, kidney
and bony defects.
"For the sake of the health of women and children, we are moving ahead with
the efforts to put warning labels on the containers of alcohol products. These
warnings are aimed at raising public awareness about negative health and social
effects of alcohol including the risk of alcohol consumption during pregnancy,"
said Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.
She said government has made significant progress in improving the health of
women with the proportion of births that were attended to by either a nurse or
doctor increasing from 84 percent in 1998 to 92 percent in 2003.
More than 77 percent of our health facilities were providing services to
reduce the risk of mother to child transmission of HIV by the end of last year
and these services are being expanded to other facilities.
The Minister said programmes to improve access to safe running water, proper
sanitation and electricity are making a real difference to the daily lives of
women whose health would otherwise have been compromised because of no access
to these basic services.
"We have brought freedom to millions of women whose participation in the
socio-economic activities have been limited by the daily tussles of fetching
unsafe water from far away streams and collecting wood from distant forests,"
said Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.
Contact:
Sibani Mngadi
Cell: 082 772 0161
Issued by: Ministry for Health
8 March 2006
