The Lagos State government recently joined other governments that have legislated on tobacco control but the challenges about stopping people lighting up is not yet over, writes Joe Agbro Jr.
JUST last week at one of my favourite haunts around Mushin, Lagos, I noticed an innocuous sign posted on the wall. The sign simply reads ‘No Smoking’. It was, however, loud in meaning. It was the fall-out of the recent enactment of the state government’s anti-tobacco smoking law.
Going by the law, smoking is prohibited in designated non-smoking areas and public places such as museums, public toilets, libraries, nurseries, day care centres, offices, schools, restaurants, parks, and in public transportation in the state. Others are private vehicles where there are more than one persons, school buses, factories, restaurants and cinemas, theatres, amusement parks or any other place used by members of the public as conference centres and exhibitions halls.
First time offenders may get up to three months in jail and pay a fine of N10, 000, while repeat offenders may be fined N50, 000 or face six years in jail. The law also reserves a fine of N15, 000 or six months imprisonment for smokers who smoke around minors or anyone below 18 years old.
From gold to dust
Tobacco smoking, once glamorous across the world, has seen many bans and restrictions. Unlike before the millennial, it is no longer cool to smoke and many governments across the world are legislating against tobacco smoking. Across Lagos, especially in the ghettoes, smoking is a favourite pastime, often engaged in publicly.
And as expected, mixed reactions have trailed the law. Jide Fabiyi, who has wanted to quit smoking, welcomed the law. “I like the law,” he said. It would definitely make me reduce smoking.”
Ironically a woman who operates a bar and even sells cigarettes around Ikeja said it was a good law. “I think it is good,” she said. “People that want to kill themselves can continue but it is not good for other people that don’t smoke. Since we heard about the law, I tell my customers not to light cigarettes anymore but they complain that they cannot enjoy their drinks without smoking and so they enter inside.”
Though the law permits public places such as restaurants to designate a well-ventilated area not more than 10% of the property size as smoking area, the reality is that many places where smokers hang around are cramped and already strained for space.
No doubt, the law will stem the rate of smoking, something, Akinbode Oluwafemi of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, (ERA/FoEN) wants. “We want to completely remove the environment that induces our children to smoke,” he said. “We want to completely remove every business incentive that makes it possible for tobacco companies to continually to relocate to Nigeria and sell cigarettes to us at very cheap prices.”
And against the Lagos example, Oluwafemi believes the advocacy is gathering momentum. “Very soon,” he said, “I can guarantee you’ll see more movements in the other (state) assemblies. It is becoming like a movement.”
This movement is catching on, even though it may be at a slow pace. There are still about one billion smokers worldwide today. And in Nigeria, there has been some struggle to restrict the foothold of tobacco, but commercial activities of the big tobacco producers and old habits of smokers still kept the cigarettes burning. Many who grew up in the 90s would remember the glitz and glamour associated with cigarettes in terms of advertisement and promotions. It was hype. But the wave of condemnation has stifled their growth. Nowadays, even when exercising their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the level of visibility is reduced.
Tobacco farmers also foresee a drought in their business following a fervent bid in tobacco control. The chairman of Nigeria Independent Tobacco Farmers Association, Rasheed Bakare recently said: “We learnt that the government is taking steps toward tobacco control. For us, tobacco farming is our mainstay. If tobacco is banned, our communities will suffer. Our people will be jobless.”
Implementation
Though the anti-smoking law is here to stay, some people worry enforcement may be compromised even though the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) has been charged to enforce the law. But of course, other law enforcement agencies like the police, KAI, including individuals have powers to arrest.
The president of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Osahon Enabulele, also worries over “the implementation of the law given the sub-optimal levels of public awareness and health education on the dangers associated with tobacco smoking.”
But while he worries about awareness and health dangers, some people worry that some law enforcement officials may see the law as a way of fleecing violators of the law.
According to a smoker, Kazeem who usually hangs out around the Lagos State Abattoir at Agege, a policeman threatened to make sure he (Kazeem) is arrested for smoking.
“I know he is joking,” Kazeem said. “But I know police would use it (the law) to raid people.”
Another smoker, Seun Fajana, said while the law is good, it may not be effectively enforced. “I wonder why the price of cigarettes is not just increased,” he said. “The high price alone can discourage many people from smoking instead of a law that won’t work.”
According to Governor Fashola, the law was made to protect human lives. He said, “I have read a lot of comments about the possibility of enforcing the laws. But our commitment to public health and public safety is stronger than that.”
Smoking kills
It has been scientifically proven that tobacco smoking is harmful. And many smokers know that. What is widely unknown is really how harmful it is. A 2009 survey in China revealed that less than half (38%) of smokers knew that smoking causes coronary heart disease and only 27% knew that it causes stroke. The level of ignorance among Nigerian smokers is unknown. Yet, smoking affects nearly all the organs in the body, causing all sorts of diseases and ailments. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) tobacco kills nearly six million people each year. ‘Unless urgent action is taken,’ WHO says, ‘the annual death toll could rise to more than eight million by 2030.’
Out of this number, 600, 000 deaths are a result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. And one of the areas the anti-smoking law addresses is to protect non-smokers from the effects of second-hand smoke, the smoke that fills enclosed spaces when people burn tobacco products. WHO documents that second-hand smoke causes more than 600,000 premature deaths per year.
In adults, second-hand smoke causes 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. WHO also discloses that almost half of children breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke in public places.
According to scientists, tobacco smoke contains about 250 harmful chemicals, of which 50 are carcinogenic. Surely, these are good reasons to discourage tobacco smoking.
While quitting tobacco smoking is difficult, for people wanting to stop smoking cigarettes, there are less harmful alternatives sticking nicotine patches, chewing nicotine gum, and ‘vaping’ on e-cigarettes. However, these are not popular in these parts. And NMA is concerned about the “absence of cigarette smoking withdrawal programs” should more people decide to give up smoking.
According to WHO, nearly 80% of the world’s one billion smokers live in developing countries. And the present challenge is for these countries to stem the smoking tide, something the Lagos State government has done with the anti-tobacco smoking law.
