A two-year campaign to reduce the Republic's death rate from heart disease - the highest in the EU - is to be launched on Sunday.
But the campaign may face an uphill battle. Information published yesterday by the Department of Health and Children shows smoking on the increase and as many as one-fifth of adults taking no exercise.
A World Health Organisation comparison of death from heart disease found the Irish mortality rate at nearly twice the EU average.
In the Republic, 52 deaths per 100,000 of the population are due to heart disease compared with 27 for the EU as a whole. The next highest rates are in the UK (42) and Portugal (33).France, by contrast, has only 13 deaths from heart disease per 100,000 of the population.
"It is wholly unacceptable to have these high rates of illness and premature death from a disease which is largely preventable," the Minister of State for Health and Children, Dr Tom Moffat, said yesterday.
In an attempt to change public attitudes and behaviour, the Department is to run a campaign under the slogan "Ireland needs a change of heart" this year and next. As part of the campaign a guide to healthier living will be delivered to every household in the State.
Causes of Ireland's extremely high level of mortality from heart disease include:
Smoking, which has been on the increase since 1988 with 31 per cent of adults smoking;
Alcohol, with 27 per cent of men and 21 per cent of women drinking more than the recommended sensible limits;
High blood pressure with 26 per cent of men and 12 per cent of women showing blood pressure above the recommended level;
Diet, with 48 per cent of adults having more than the recommended level of cholesterol;
Lack of exercise with 21 per cent of adults taking no exercise at all.
Health promotion is one of the areas identified by the Cardiovascular Health Strategy Group in its 1999 report. Others include reducing the time between the onset of a heart attack and treatment to less than two hours.
However, the report found that access to cardiac care is "restricted and geographically uneven. While cardiac rehabilitation in some centres is at an international standard of excellence, in other centres there are no programmes. Even where programmes are provided, often only a minority of eligible patients are enrolled."
It also found that to improve cardiac health "we need to alter the perception that as individuals we are powerless in the fight against heart disease".
"Regular physical activity, healthy eating, managing stress and no smoking are some of the vital steps towards maintaining a healthy heart and reducing the risk of heart disease," Dr Moffat said yesterday.
Irish Heart Foundation: www.irishheart.ie