Issued by Ministry of Health
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 (March 08) in Cape Town today.
"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 - women and men alike," 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% in 1998 to 92% in 2003.
More than 77% 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 @ 0827720161