Experts sound alarm over teenage smoking in Jordan

AMMAN — The Status Quo of Tobacco Control in Jordan Report and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have indicated that 32.2 per cent of students between the ages of 13 and 15 currently use some kind of tobacco. 

According to the report, the percentage of tobacco use in Jordan for teenage boys of 44.5 per cent is higher than that of girls, which is 22.2 per cent, although girl's tobacco use in Jordan is considerably higher than the global average for adolescent girls of 8 per cent (see full story).

Tobacco use is the foremost risk factor for cancer, causing around 20 per cent of global cancer deaths and around 70 per cent of global lung cancer deaths according to WHO. 

There were approximately 8.2 million cancer-related deaths and 14 million new cases in 2012, which makes cancer one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide.

According to Omar Nimri, head of the National Cancer Registry, the number of cancer cases registered in Jordan reached 7,454 by the end of 2012, with 5,013 of the patients being Jordanian, while the rest are non-Jordanians residing in the Kingdom. 

Nimri expects the figure to increase by 100 or 200 by the end of 2015. Lung cancer tops the list of cancers infecting men in Jordan with 292 cases, while the number for women is 78 according to the registry.