THE rise in lifestyle diseases is largely the fault of companies marketing junk food to children, a rise in vaping and cannabis smoking, and a prevalence of dubious alternative remedies in light of an overburdened public health system.
This is what a virtual hearing of Parliament's Joint Select Committee (JSC) on Social Services and Public Administration was told on March 20.
Cancer Society chair Dr Asante Le Blanc, Diabetes Association president Dr Andre Dhanoo and Heart Foundation manager Amit Maharaj appeared before the JSC, chaired by Independent Senator Dr Paul Richards.
They lamented a lack of funding for NGOs fighting non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and lengthy waits for treatment at public hospitals.
Le Blanc highlighted the effects of vaping, tobacco smoking and cannabis smoking.
She urged Trinidad and Tobago to ban the advertising of vaping as supposedly relatively harmless, just as tobacco advertising has been banned.
Le Blanc said "electronic cigarettes" were not included in regulations under the Tobacco Control Bill.
"We need to address this, because vaping has become a huge epidemic in Trinidad and Tobago. When we are allowing the advertising of vaping to our teens as something to do and a way to quit smoking, when it is really a way to hook them on to smoking and other drug use...And when we are allowing ads on TV, on radio, on social media, we have a problem.
"If our World Health Organization is saying vaping is bad, how on earth are we not making a change? What are we waiting for?"
Richards asked if there was a lacuna (gap) in the tobacco law that currently allows vaping ads, and Le Blanc said yes.
"The same tobacco industry is manipulating it. They are saying, 'Don't smoke, vape!'
"It is being touted as something safe and fashionable and it is wrong, and we have the data to prove it.
"We have to nip this in the bud."
Replying to a question from Chaguanas East MP Vandana Mohit, Le Blanc said via the Ministries of Health and Education and with the support of Republic and Scotia Banks, the Cancer Society has visited schools to lobby against smoking and vaping. She wanted more input from the two ministries against all NCDs.
"You are having 30-something year olds dying of heart attacks. Because between the smoking, the vaping, the energy drinks, and everything else, there is no proper lifestyle.
"So we have to do something. We are losing the younger members of our population, not only the older sector, and this is with the NCDs."
Richards asked if the decriminalisation of cannabis was contributing to the prevalence of cancer.
Le Blanc replied yes. She said the rise was due to both the marijuana and the fact of something hot going into the lungs.
"Heat will change the epithelial lining.
"Smoking marijuana in any form will put you at risk of cancer and other NCDs."
Dhanoo, in reply to Mohit, urged action against companies marketing junk food to children and against unqualified quacks promoting dubious cure-all health remedies.
On diabetes, he urged an interven
