Reducing tobacco consumption
…key to halting non-communicable diseases
This development, which was part of WHO’s third periodic report on global tobacco epidemic, further revealed that Mexico, Peru and the United States of America (USA) have become the latest countries to require the large, graphic warnings, which is proven to motivate people to stop using tobacco and reduce the appeal for people not yet addicted to it.
Even as graphic health warning, that is among the six demand-reduction measures recommended by the global health body to inform people on the dangers of tobacco use, health experts and anti-tobacco advocates have urged countries to follow the best-practices for reducing tobacco consumption and to become parties to, and fully implement, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC.
In a recent chat with BusinessDay, Femi Olugbile, permanent secretary, Ministry of Health, Lagos State, said globally, use of tobacco products is increasing, although it is decreasing in high-income countries.
While stating that tobacco use kills 5.4 million people annually and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths worldwide, Olugbile noted that tobacco use is one of the main risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including cancer, lung diseases, and cardiovascular diseases.
The permanent secretary maintained that a number of countries have legislations in place restricting tobacco advertising, and regulating who can buy and use tobacco products, and where people can smoke even as tobacco products is commonly used across the globe.
According to Olugbile, “The ‘World No Tobacco Day’ commemorated 31st May annually is aimed at raising public awareness on the dangers of tobacco use, and what people can do to claim their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations. With New York, Spain and Thailand among the latest countries to ban smoking in indoor public spaces and at workplace, there is the need for enforcement of legislation to provide protection from tobacco smoke in all public and work places following its public health implication.
“We know that tobacco advertising attempts to market its products by associating tobacco use with beauty and liberation. Often the threat to women is less from their being enticed to smoke or chew tobacco than from their being exposed to the smoke of others, particularly, men. By protecting people from exposure to tobacco smoke, death tolls and crippling heart attacks, strokes, cancers and respiratory diseases that are becoming prevalent will be reduced,” Olugbile stated.
Echoing the sentiment of the permanent secretary, Akinbode Oluwafemi, programme manager, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), revealed that the tobacco control bill, contrary to public perception, is not an attack on smokers even as most smokers actually want to quit.
Akinbode noted that though no survey has been done among smokers, some of them are actually looking for motivation to be able to get out of smoking, many of them who have started, do not want their children to smoke; that is very clear.
“Let me tell you that most smokers in the world actually want to quit. No survey that has been done among smokers that doesn’t show 40 - 60 percent support for Tobacco Control Law because they are actually looking for motivation to be able to get out of smoking. A lot of them that have started do not want their children to smoke; that is very clear. This is not an attack on anybody. We think that it is rather they should help us to ensure that they get out of tobacco addiction.
“The National Tobacco Control Bill, which had been passed by the Senate in March 2011, has just passed the first reading in the House of Representatives. Rather than being bogged down by the politics of the two Houses, we are saying that this is a national call and what we need is just a concurrence. The tobacco bill is not an attack on anybody. We think that it is rather they should help us to ensure that they get out of tobacco addiction.
This bill has to be law. We just need very little effort now to get to where we need to,” Oluwafemi added.
It is noteworthy to state that large, graphic health warnings of the sort pioneered by Uruguay, Canada and a handful of other countries are an effective means of reducing tobacco’s appeal. However, Australia’s proposed legislation to require that tobacco be sold in plain packaging will do even more to ensure that fewer people fall into the trap of sickness and premature death.
With the WHO FCTC developed in response to the globalisation of the tobacco epidemic and is an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health, the convention adopted by the World Health Assembly, represents a milestone for the promotion of public health and provides new legal dimensions for international health cooperation.
There is no gain-saying that an area which needs improvement is in the area of protecting public health policies from influence by the tobacco industry. Although some countries have begun to implement policies rejecting partnerships with the tobacco industry and making their interactions with the industry fully transparent, calls have been made to pressurise governments and policy makers on the need to curb deaths and ill-health caused by smoking.
Other measures aimed at reducing the health hazard associated with tobacco use include monitoring tobacco use, protecting people from tobacco smoke, helping users quit, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and raising taxes on tobacco. Each measure corresponds to, at least, one provision of the WHO FCTC, which has been in force since 2005 and to which more than 170 countries and the European Union have already become parties.
Currently, twelve more countries have raised tobacco taxes to more than 75 percent of the retail price, bringing the total to 27; Chad, Colombia and Syria have banned tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and Turkey has offered tobacco users comprehensive help to quit.
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