Manuel Macedo

Poluição do ar interior provocada pelo fumo do cigarro em locais públicos de Portugal

OBJETIVO: Poucos tem sido os estudos para conhecer o grau de poluicao pelo fumo do tabaco a que estao sujeitas as pessoas em varios lugares publicos e privados. O objectivo do estudo foi quantificar o nivel de poluicao do ar provocada pelo fumo do cigarro em locais de trabalho e de lazer. METODOS: O estudo foi realizado no concelho de Braga, Portugal, em 2005. A medicao dos teores de nicotina no ar interior foi realizada com monitores passivos contendo um filtro de 37 mm de diâmetro tratado com bissulfato sodico no seu interior. Os monitores foram colocados em lugares publicos, de trabalho e de lazer, pre-definidos. Para cada um dos locais, calculou-se a mediana da nicotina. RESULTADOS: A presenca de nicotina foi detectada em 85% das amostras. Foram encontrados valores elevados de contaminacao do ar nas discotecas, com mediana de 82,26 µg/m³, variando entre os 5,79 e os 106,31 µg/m³.Os locais de trabalho da administracao publica e da universidade apresentaram os valores mais baixos de nicotina. CONCLUSOES: Os dados confirmam a necessidade de reforcar a implemen-tacao e sobretudo, o cumprimento de politicas sem fumo nos locais de trabalho e de lazer, em beneficio da saude dos trabalhadores e como medida reforcadora de um ambiente que facilite aos fumadores o abandono do fumo do tabaco.

Smoking trends in Portuguese school – Aged children and aproaches for a control – An analysis based on the Health Behaviour in School – Aged Children (HBSC) data

While smoking has negative health consequences for children and adolescents, the major risk of smoking onset by these age groups is tobacco dependence, in most cases for the rest of their lives, which can later lead to the suffering of diseases related to smoking. This fact shows the importance of smoking prevention in teens to avoid the negative health, economic and environmental effects related to smoking. Although Portugal does not have a National Smoking Prevention Programme, some schools have developed prevention campaigns to control the spread of the tobacco epidemic. To determine the efficacy of smoking prevention campaigns developed in Portuguese schools we compared the data of smoking prevalence provided by Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) (11-15 years old) from 1997/98 and 2002. The results show the rise of smoking prevalence in students on both sexes, especially among girls. Data supports the conclusion that Portuguese schools are not effective in smoking prevention and in Portugal it is necessary to continue smoking prevention campaigns aimed at the younger children.

Prevalência do consumo de tabaco em adolescentes escolarizados portugueses por sexo: podemos estar otimistas?

INTRODUCTION According to the MPOWER approach adopted in 2008 by the WHO, monitoring smoking epidemics is necessary in order to assess the effectiveness of the preventive measures used in smoking control in adolescents and adults. OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence of smoking in Portuguese school-aged adolescents by region. MATERIAL AND METHODS The sample is made up of 8764 students, 4060 boys and 4704 girls, and is representative of the Portuguese students in regular public education. The data was collected in the 2008/2009 academic year, through a quantitative self-report questionnaire. RESULTS In the total sample, 10.2% of boys and 9.1% of girls are regular smokers. Smoking increases with age. At 15 years old 12.3% of the boys and 8.6% of the girls are regular smokers and 6.1% of the boys and 4.0% of the girls are occasional smokers. Looking at prevalence by region, the highest prevalence of regular smoking is found in Alentejo (14.7%), followed by Azores (11.8%) and the lowest is found in Algarve (4.1%). CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of smokers among Portuguese school-aged adolescents varies within the several regions of the country, similar to what happens in the adult Portuguese population.

Plano global de prevenção do tabagismo do Município de Braga

In spite of its negative impacts on health, in the society, in the economy and in the environment, smoking is a behaviour spread national and internationally. The data collected in 1999 by the Health National Inquire about smoking prevalence in people from 15 and over, in Portugal mainland, show that 29,3% of men and around 7,9% of women were daily smokers, which means a total of 1,626.597 smokers (1,248.212 men and 378,385 women). If we analyse the data from other sources (Health National Inquires and Eurobarometer) we can see that the tobacco epidemy is growing among both gender but in a particulary alarming way in the female group. It is necessary and urgent to take some primary prevention measures especially addressed to young people and women and at the same time give all the smokers the chance of treatment. Bearing in mind the idea of the Ecologist Movement «thinking globally, acting locally» we defend the implementation of global but local actions as the best approach to control smoking. In this article we describe the state and the trends of smoking in Portugal as well as The Global Prevention Programme of Tobacco Consumption in Braga (North of Portugal). This action plan is intended to solve in a decisive way the tobacco consumption in Braga and at the same time to be taken as an example for the elaboration of a National Plan for Prevention the Tobacco Consumption. REV PORT PNEUMOL 2004; X (4): 269-285