Tobacco Kill, ban it

Tobacco Kill, ban it
Public Agenda
Monday, June 1st, 2009
By Basiru Adam

Vision for Alternative Development [VALD], and NGO, convinced that Tobacco has done more harm than good to both smokers and non-smokers, has demanded that government takes a number of measures, including increase tax on tobacco, to make Ghana an unpleasant market for tobacco trade. The NGO believes that government would be saving more money as against the returns it makes from tobacco companies if it protected its citizens from exposing themselves to the harmful effects tobacco. “Our health facilities are already overstretched. How many specialized units do we have at Korle-Bu? How is government going to come up with money to take care of diseases that result from tobacco smoking?” asks Issah Ali, Executive Director of VALD. VALD is thus asking for a hundred percent ban on Tobacco smoking in public places even as it calls for the passage of Tobacco Control Bill that has been pending since 2005 into law.

Issah Ali refuted the notion that smokers could be allotted designated places where they could smoke. In his view, there is no guarantee whatever that the smoke, the movement of which cannot be controlled, would not ultimately reach non-smokers. “As there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke, we are recommending a 100% ban on smoking in public places. Kenya, Zambia and other countries have banned smoking. Public smoking in Abuja is illegal. Designating areas for smokers does not protect non-smokers.” In the Western World, governments have and continue to tighten control measures so that Tobacco companies are finding it increasingly less conducive to do business in those countries. Naturally therefore, such companies would be looking for jurisdictions that have loose regulations to stay and expand their frontiers. And Issah Ali believes that the Tobacco companies are finding Africa a safe haven in that regard. For example, he argued, some of the companies are putting up production plants in Senegal and elsewhere in Africa to serve as a strong manufacturing base in the supply of the drug.

Meanwhile, there is in place, in the international arena, a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control [FCTC] which was negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization and unanimously approved by member states of the World Health Assembly. Ghana, as usual, is one of the 164 countries that are party to the convention. “Ghana is among the first forty countries which supported the entry into force of the FCTC.” The objective of the convention is to “protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption.” It is on the back of the afore-mentioned that VALD is urging the government of Ghana to expedite action on the passage into law of the Tobacco Control Bill to give effective provisions of the framework convention. Article 4 of the convention demands of Ghana that “every person should be informed of the health consequences, addictive nature, and mortal threat posed by tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke and effective legislative, executive, administrative or other measures should be contemplated at the appropriate governmental level to protect all persons from exposure to tobacco smoke.” To strengthen implementation of the law if passed, VALD proposes that government establishes a Tobacco Control Council, comprising relevant agencies and civil society groups to advice the health minister and other relevant agencies in the enforcement of the Tobacco Control Act.

Another worrying phenomenon that VALD wants government to be wary of is the attempt by tobacco companies to maneuver their way into the good books of legislator as it alleged to have happened in Kenya. Before Kenyan parliamentarians debated the bill on tobacco control, a tobacco company is alleged to have carter some of them away into a hotel where they were to believed to have been bribed so that “upon their retune from the sponsored holiday, interesting proposals were made towards weakening the bill.” “We are not saying it is happening in Ghana. But we know the possibility is there,” says Issah Ali. Issah Ali thus urged government and the Association of Ghana Industries to stop dealing with tobacco companies. “The health effects of tobacco are circumstances, mechanisms and factors of tobacco consumption on human health. Epidemiological research has been focused primarily on tobacco smoking, which has been studied more extensively than any other form of consumption. As of 2000, smoking is practice by some 1.22 billion people, of which men are likely to smoke than women, however the gender gap decline with age, poor more likely than rich, and people of developing countries more than those of developed countries. Fresh tobacco processed tobacco, and tobacco smoke contain carcinogens. Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, Acrolein, and Nitrosamines are created during pyrolysis. These compounds are DNA adducts which induces mutation during DNA copying.

Tobacco use leads most commonly to diseases affecting the heart and lungs, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD], emphysema, and cancer. As of 2000, smoking is practiced by 1.22 billion people. Assuming no change in prevalence it is predicted that 1.45 billion people will smoke in 2010 and 1.5 to 1.9 billion in 2025. Assuming that prevalence will decrease at 1% a year and that there will be a modest increase of income of 2%, it is predicted the number of smokers will stand at 1.3 billion 2010 and 2025. Smoking is generally five times higher among men than women; however the gender gap has begins to decline with younger age.

As of 2002 in China 67% of men smoke as to 4% of women, however among teens the gap closes to 33% among men as to 8% with women. In developed countries smoking rates for men have peaked and have begun to decline, however for women they continue to climb. As of 2002, about twenty percent of young teens [13 – 15] smoke worldwide. From which 80,000 to 10,000 children begin to smoking every day, of which roughly half of which live in Asia. Half of those who begin smoking in adolescent years go on to smoke for 15 to 20 years. Much of the disease burden and premature mortality attributable to tobacco use disproportionately affect the poor.” Of the 1.22 billion smokers, 1 billion of them live in developing or transitional economies. Rates of smoking have leveled off or declined in the developed world, from which the United States have dropped by half from 1965 to 2006 falling from 42% to 20.8% in adult.
However, up to 30% of men are former smokers in developing countries, only 2% of men in China have quit, and 10% in Vietnam. In the developing world, however, tobacco consumption is rising by 3.4% per year as of 2002. The WHO in 2004 projected 58.8 million deaths to occur globally, from which 5.4 million are tobacco-attributed, and 4.9 million as of 2007. As of 2002, 70% of the deaths are developing countries “. Wikipidia.com