Ban all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion –WHO

[Mirror]

'Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health' and 'Federal Ministry of Health warns that Cigarette Smokers are liable to Die Young' are phrases that are used during cigarette adverts and also found on cigarette packs. Yet these warnings have not stopped smokers from going for this harmful product at any stall that cigarette is being sold.

The global campaign against tobacco use and advertisement is an ongoing project spearheaded by the World Health Organisation, WHO. In this year's World No Tobacco Day marked every May 31, the world health body called for countries of the world to ban all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship to help reduce the number of tobacco users.

In a research fact sheet released by WHO, tobacco kills up to half its users. By 2030, it estimates that tobacco will kill more than eight million people every year, with four out of five of these deaths occurring in low and middle-income countries. Tobacco is a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases.

According to the WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan, "Tobacco use ranks right at the very top of the list of universal threats to health yet it is entirely preventable. Governments must make it their top priority to stop the tobacco industry's shameless manipulation of young people and women, in particular, to recruit the next generation of nicotine addicts," she cried out.

In this year's campaign, the health body says a comprehensive ban of all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship is required under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, FCTC. This is because tobacco not only kills nearly six million people every year, more than 600 000 are non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke.

"The tobacco epidemic is man-made and entirely preventable. Yet, only half of the world's population lives in a country that fully protects its people with at least one of the key policy interventions that significantly reduce tobacco use," research indicates.

For the 2013 campaign, the theme: 'Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship', has been adopted, with the global organisation beaming its searchlight on the tobacco companies' advertising, promotion and sponsorship campaigns to reduce the influence of tobacco on the world and thereby its negative effects on the people. According to the body, the WHO FCTC required countries to comprehensively ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. However, only 19 countries, representing six per cent of the world's population, have the comprehensive national bans and Nigeria has been reported not to be among this group.

In Nigeria, there are still covert adverts of cigarette companies and their products. This can be seen in the colourful branded tobacco kiosks used by 'Mallam' in the sale of their small provision businesses and some bars and drink joints also contain advertising materials of tobacco.

The Nigeria National Tobacco Control Bill, NTCB 2009 is a comprehensive law to regulate the manufacturing, advertising, distribution and consumption of tobacco products. It is aimed at domesticating the WHO FCTC because Nigeria is a party to that international convention. The key highlights of the bill are prohibition of smoking in public places; to include restaurant and bar, public transportation, schools, hospitals etc.

Whether this law has helped to reduce the sale and distribution of cigarette in Nigeria in any way is still open for debate. Coalition Against Tobacco (CAT), civil society groups, legal practitioners and public health advocates have called on the present government to be stricter on tobacco growers and the manufacturing companies that have their plants and plantations in the country such as the British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN). Instead of just collecting huge taxes from them at the detriment of the health of its citizens, these groups said, "For us to achieve our objective of reducing tobacco-related diseases in the country, government must ensure the control of smuggling, direct prohibition of production, crop substitution, increase taxation and outright ban on advertisement."

The companies that manufacture tobacco warn its users that they are liable to die young; but what they also failed to tell the general public is that even those who are non smokers but inhale the smoke coming from those that do so will equally suffer from the same diseases associated with cigarette smoking.

A Consultant Cardio-thoracic Surgeon and senior lecturer, University of Lagos Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Dr Ezekiel Ogunlewe, told Sunday Mirror in an interview that, "Smoking is banned in most parts of the developed countries. In other parts, it is banned in enclosed places like restaurants, theatres or other public places in order to avoid the risks of passive smoking. These countries that manufacture these cigarettes and export to Nigeria or have their plants here have banned public smoking in their own countries and we should also do the same. The legislative arm of government should look into this to curb the menace smoking and passive smoking is causing on the health of Nigerians."

Medical experts define passive smoking also called second-hand smoking as the involuntary inhalation of the smoke from cigarettes or tobacco that is being smoked by others. Second-hand smoking occurs when cigarette smoke spreads in the air and is inhaled by people who are present in the same environment. All over the world, it has been found that passive smoking is as injurious to health as the actual smoking itself.

Most of the time, passive smokers are the ones who live with smokers such as the spouse and children and they are regularly exposed to tobacco smoke. On the other hand, a non-smoker can also get exposed to tobacco smoke while working in a smoky atmosphere or simply by being in a smoke-filled restaurant or bar.

Dr. Ogunlewe outrightly condemned the habit of smoking and the creating of passive smokers by those who do. He said, "When a cigarette is smoked, about half of the smoke is inhaled by the smoker and this is called mainstream smoke. The other half floats around in the air and this is called side stream smoke. The combination of mainstream and side stream smoke makes up environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) which is very injurious to the health of human beings.

An estimated 35,000 to 62,000 deaths are caused from heart disease in people who are not current smokers, but who are exposed to ETS. When you smoke a cigarette, the smoke that is blown out contains about 4,000 harmful substances of which at least 250 are known to be harmful and more than 50 are known to cause cancer of the blood; cancer of the esophagus; lung problems and generally blocks the blood vessels. What a smoker blows out is what you and I will inhale and they are more dangerous than the one the smoker even inhales into their system because it is a combination of both mainstream and side stream smoke.

Presently, we're seeing an upsurge of these diseases in our hospitals and clinics unlike in the past. We perform an average of five to eight cases of lung cancer surgeries within a year in this hospital. The arteries are developing diseases and all these are direct effects from tobacco smoking,'' he laments.

Experts warn that in adults, second-hand smoke causes serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer. In infants, it causes sudden death. In pregnant women, it causes low birth weight. Almost half of the children regularly breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke in public places. Second-hand smoke causes more than 600 000 premature deaths per year.

"Every person should be able to breathe smoke-free air. Smoke-free laws that protect the health of non-smokers should be promulgated strictly in the country to curb the kind of diseases caused by passively inhaling cigarette smoke," experts advise.

As the world marks yet another World No Tobacco Day, it is a time of reflection on the health implication of tobacco, as well as the obvious diseases which have been linked to it. It is a clarion call on the government and all concerned to put hands on deck to ensure that Nigeria joins the rest of the world to show commitment by taking decisive action to reduce tobacco use, the leading preventable cause of death in the world.

National Mirror