HEALTH-AFRICA: Parents Urged To Protect Children Against Smoking

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

HARARE, May 31 1999 (IPS) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Ebrahim Samba, Monday urged parents to protect their children against the growing culture of smoking in Africa.

“Parents should educate their children on tobacco hazards from the time they are in kindergarten, right up to the university level,” he said, in a statement to mark the World No- Tobacco Day, in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare.

Dr. Mohamed Belhocine of the WHO’s non-communicable diseases division says 200 billion cigarettes are consumed in Africa every year.

Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania are the leading growers of tobacco.

“The truth is that one out of every two long-term smokers will ultimately be killed by tobacco,” the WHO says. “In developed countries, half will be killed in middle age, before age 70, and those who die from smoking before age 70 will lose more than 20 years of life expectancy.”

“…four million people die yearly from tobacco-related diseases, one death every eight seconds,” WHO adds. If current trends continue, WHO estimates that the toll will rise to 10 million by 2030, one death every three seconds.

This year’s theme is “Smoking Cessation” and the slogan is “Leave The Pack Behind”.

According to the WHO, tobacco is fast becoming a greater cause of death and disability, and it is projected to claim more lives than HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis, maternal mortality, motor vehicle accidents, suicide, and homicide combined.

“Controlling HIV/AIDs will be easy, I believe,” Samba says. “But it will not be easy for smoking. This is because people who die of tobacco, die 20 or 30 years later after starting to smoke,” he explains.

WHO estimates that there were 1.1 billion smokers in the world at the beginning of the 1990s, 300 million in developed countries and 800 million in developing countries.

About one-third of the world’s adults were smokers at the beginning of this decade, and there is little sign that this proportion has changed substantially since.

Samba says the estimated 100 million deaths caused by tobacco use each year are avoidable.

“We are making a solemn appeal to all health officials, community leaders and the private sector, especially non- governmental organisations, to help establish smoking cessation centres at which all smokers, willing to quit their smoking habit, will be given effective professional assistance to enable them to do so,” he says.

Samba has urged Africa’s 53 countries to integrate primary prevention of tobacco use into primary health care at all levels. Through national policies, governments have a key role to play in controlling tobacco as effectively as possible, he says.

WHO recommends comprehensive tobacco control strategies, with strong emphasis on legislation and education. “Reducing tobacco’s harmful effects requires governments to legislate and educate,” Belhocine says. “There is a need for national and international action to restrict the spread of tobacco use.”

Examples of successful legislation can be found. New Zealand adopted comprehensive tobacco control policies in 1990. By 1996, tobacco consumption per capita among young adults ( from 15 years upwards) had dropped by 21 percent.

Thailand introduced comprehensive tobacco control policies in 1992. Smoking prevalence among young Thai adults aged 15-19 dropped from 12.1 percent to 9.5 percent, a decline of over one- fifth. Thailand also registered substantial decreases in adult smoking prevalence from 1991 to 1996.

“Africa is lucky to have the lowest number of smokers among its populations compared to other regions,” Samba says. “It must therefore use the opportunity provided by the Tobacco-Free Initiative to reduce the number of its smokers, even further.”

In South Africa, President Nelson Mandela recently signed legislation developed by health minister, Dr. Nkozasana Dhlamini Zuma to protect children from tobacco advertising and exposure to tobacco smoke.

The country’s new tobacco laws also prohibit smoking in public places and ban all forms of materials that promote tobacco.

WHO also rejects the notion that there are safe investments in tobacco. The economic impact of tobacco has been analysed in many countries in recent years. Studies from Brazil, China, South Africa and Swaziland complement earlier analyses done in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“Their combined message is unequivocal — the alleged economic benefits of tobacco are illusory and misleading,” says WHO.

A recent World Bank study, entitled “The Economic Costs and Benefits of Investing in Tobacco” has estimated that the use of tobacco results in a global net loss of 200 billion US Dollars per year, with half of these losses occurring in the developing world.

The same study also estimates that smoking prevention is among the most cost-effective of all health interventions.

In a developing country with a per capita gross domestic product of 2000 US Dollars, effective smoking prevention costs approximately 20 US Dollars to 40 US Dollars per year of life gained.

On the other hand, lung cancer treatment, which can prolong the lives of only about 10 percent of affected people, would cost 18,000 US Dollars per year of life gained, according to the WHO.