Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) – There is the urgent need for concerted efforts by all stakeholders to prevent a looming tobacco epidemic in Africa to safeguard the future well being of the continent, according to a report released by the Network of African Science Academies.
“As the use of tobacco has declined in high-income countries, the tobacco industry has increasingly turned to low and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, to recruit new users,” the President of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences (NAS) and Co-Chair of Africa Tobacco Control Committee, Professor Oyewole Tomori, said at the public presentation of the report in Lagos last week.
Tagged, “Preventing a Tobacco Epidemic in Africa: A Call for Effective Action to Support Health, Social and Economic Development,” the report is the product of a committee of experts set up by the Network to discuss the evidence, obstacles and opportunities for implementing and enforcing tobacco use and prevention, as well as control in Africa.
The committee consists of 16 experts drawn from 8 African countries. It reviewed and assessed the evidence on the state of tobacco use and tobacco production and their detrimental health, economic and environmental effects in Africa.
It highlighted the dangers inherent in smoking, which is on the increase particularly among African youth.
Apart from serving as a wake-up call to government, civil society, communities and individuals, it recommended strategies to adopt in averting an epidemic on the continent.
“Without comprehensive tobacco prevention and control policies, it is estimated that smoking prevalence in the African region will increase by nearly 39% by 2030 … the largest expected regional increase globally.
“Increasing prevalence, combined with sustained economic growth and changing population dynamics, could drive tobacco consumption in Africa to double within the next 10 years. The morbidity and mortality caused by such an increase in tobacco use and exposure could have devastating effects on health, development efforts and economic growth in African countries,” the report said.
The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats in the world. Tobacco kills up half of its users, it is an epidemic that costs more than half a trillion dollars in economic damages yearly.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), nearly 6 million people are killed annually by tobacco; more than 5 million of these deaths are the result of direct tobacco use, while more than 600,000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
Approximately, one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco, accounting for 1:10 adult deaths.
Up to half of current users will eventually die of tobacco-related disease.
It has been established that tobacco is the leading cause of deaths, illness and impoverishment.
Health experts say there are more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least 250 are known to be harmful and more than 50 are known to cause cancer.
Second-hand smoke is the smoke that a non-smoker inhales from a smoker. It is the smoke that fills restaurants, offices or other enclosed spaces when people burn tobacco products like cigarettes.
The report urged governments to prioritize the implementation and enforcement of laws passed on tobacco smoking including effective use of taxation measures in accordance with WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
It also advocated for a comprehensive ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
The report called for integration of information on the ill effects of tobacco into the curricula of health promotion in primary and secondary schools to promote greater awareness of such information.
