Anti-Smoking Authority: Protecting Youth from Tobacco is an Investment in Their Health

In a statement today, Al-Saleh described this step as a crucial health and preventive measure to protect the younger generations, noting that limiting young people’s access to tobacco products can help delay the age at which smoking begins, thereby reducing the number of smokers in the future.

He emphasized that protecting children and adolescents from tobacco products is not merely a health measure, but an investment in the health of future generations and a means of reducing the health and economic burden of smoking on Kuwaiti society.

Al-Saleh pointed to a 2021 study by researcher Waleed Al-Ali, which found that the average age of smoking initiation in Kuwait is approximately 17.5 years, underscoring the importance of adopting preventive and legislative measures targeting this age group before smoking becomes a persistent habit and a nicotine addiction.

He also cited another study conducted by researcher Abdul Salam Nasser and published in 2020, which revealed that Kuwait ranks second in the Arab world in the proportion of university students who smoke, at 46 percent, highlighting the scale of the challenge the state faces in combating smoking among youth and university students.

He further referred to a 2020 study by researcher Muassid Sheik that examined the prevalence of tobacco use among adolescent school students in Afghanistan, Oman, and Kuwait. The study found that the percentage of students who had smoked cigarettes or used other tobacco products one or more days during the 30 days preceding the survey was 10.6 percent in Afghanistan, 9.3 percent in Oman, and 28.8 percent in Kuwait.