By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune News Editor
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
A MAJOR report on health in The Bahamas recommends revisiting and modernising alcohol-related laws to restrict access to alcoholic beverages.
“Change comes when a sense of urgency is present,” The Bahamas STEPS 2019 report says.
“Revisit and modernise legislation on access to as well as sales and promotion of alcohol with increased penalties and fines for infractions, with fines earmarked for programmes geared at harmful alcohol use reduction.”
The report’s recommendation followed findings that the country is headed in the wrong direction regarding non-communicable diseases.
Experts also recommended the country pass laws to reduce demand for unhealthy food products; for example, laws eliminating trans fats.
Other recommendations include: “Mandate nutrition and caloric information for all meals sold in restaurants as well as fast foods, pop-up, side-of-the-road franchises.”
“Require grocery stores to organise/group products and erect visible shelf markers such as green for healthy, yellow for less healthy and red for not healthy; as a precursor to legislation on front-of-package labelling.”
“Prohibit children from purchasing junk food and outlaw junk food in schools and vending machines. Lessons can be learned from Mexico who implemented this in 2020.”
Experts urged the country to revise the breadbasket list, removing unhealthy items while including healthier options.
Health Minister Dr Michael Darville tabled the 2019 STEPS report in the House of Assembly on Wednesday.
Researchers found The Bahamas is among the countries in the region with the highest probability of dying too young from a non-communicable disease (NCD).
“Additionally, in the study year, the adjusted rate of potentially avoidable premature mortality in The Bahamas was 324.5 deaths per 100,000 population, a decrease of 26.9 percent from a rate of 443.9 in 2000,” the report said.
“This meant that in 2019, the avoidable mortality in the country was 43.1 percent higher than the average rate reported for the region of the Americas as a whole.
“Among potentially avoidable premature mortality, the rate for preventable causes was 171.5 per 100,000 population in 2019, which is 25.1 percent higher than the regional average rate; and the rate for treatable causes was 153 per 100,000 population, above the regional average of 89.6. These data reflect the ultimate toll of NCDs, death. There are, however, other tolls that NCDs exert.”