By Moses Emorinken, Abuja
The Federal Government and the World Health Organization (WHO) have joined their voices to discourage the addictive practice of smoking which is said to have caused 29,472 deaths yearly in the country.
They noted that covert advertisement and other industry tactics like the introduction of electronic smoking devices (falsely claimed to be less harmful than conventional cigarettes) by the tobacco industry does not only frustrate public health objectives but also lures young people to smoke.
The government, therefore, said it has put measures in place to discourage the practice of smoking by introducing increased excise tax on tobacco products, implementation of graphic pictorial health warning messages, creation of helplines, and many other tobacco cessation services.
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, in his remarks during a briefing in Abuja on Monday, to commemorate this year’s World “No Tobacco” Day with the theme “Commit to Quit,” said: “WHO data shows that there are over 1.3 billion tobacco users in the world and that tobacco is in one way or another responsible for more than 8 million deaths each year, more than 7 million of which are as the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being indirectly exposed to second-hand smoke.
“In Nigeria, findings from the 2012 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) show that 5.6 percent (4.5 million) Nigerians 15 years and older, currently use tobacco products of which 3.9 percent (3.1 million) are smokers. The GATS result further shows that 45.4 percent of the smokers had attempted to quit in the past 12 months prior to the survey, of which 61.1 percent attempted to do so without any assistance while 15 percent tried counseling and 5.2 percent tried pharmacotherapy.
“The death toll from tobacco is high in Nigeria, as the Tobacco Atlas of 2018 reports estimates of more than 16,100 deaths from tobacco-related diseases every year. Another research finding published in 2021 by the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa showed that 29,472 deaths in Nigeria were attributable to smoking.”
He added: “The Federal Ministry of Health is committed to supporting people to quit tobacco use. In 2019, the Ministry, in collaboration with WHO and the European Respiratory Society, piloted tobacco cessation services in some healthcare facilities in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. We intend to scale this up to other parts of Nigeria, in the near future, so that more tobacco users can have access to cessation services.
“As we work to protect and promote the health of Nigerians, the tobacco industry has different commercial interests, which do not tally with our public health objectives. The tobacco industry prefers more smokers and encourages long-term smoking and has even introduced electronic smoking devices, falsely claimed to be less harmful than conventional cigarettes. Covert advertising also lures young persons to smoking, in ways that can be harmful and highly addictive. According to WHO, a shisha user, for example, inhales the equivalent of about 100 cigarettes during one session of shisha use.”
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In his address, the Country Representative of WHO, Dr Kazadi Mulombo, added: “Nigeria was selected as one of the 22 countries for support by WHO (HQ/AFRO) to scale-up programmes to help people quit tobacco, especially at the primary health care and community levels.
“This will include the setting up of a toll-free quitline and the pilot of a WHO supported mobile cessation (mCessation) programme for a period of 9 – 12 months through the use of pre-designed WhatsApp toolkit and Facebook Messenger in different languages. At this juncture, Honourable Minister, we kindly request for your team to identify a space within the Ministry to set up a call center office from which the counsellors will respond to caller needs.
“Honorable Minister, it is also important to note that for the last 3 years, Nigeria has received a World No Tobacco Day Award which recognizes individuals or organizations for their accomplishments in the area of tobacco control. This year, we have one awardee from Nigeria amongst the six awardees from the African Region.
“As WHO we pledge to continue supporting the country to meet their obligations under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Just to also note that there’s a need for all of us to be alert to industry tactics as they attract new users and keep people using tobacco, even when they are trying to quit. Products such as electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches are highly addictive and not recommended as strategies to reduce tobacco use.”
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