TheCable

The World Health organisation (WHO) has warned that the use of tobacco may be responsible for 8 million deaths annually, by 2030.

Reviewing the impact of tobacco smoking ahead of the World No Tobacco Day — observed every May 31 since 1989 — WHO urged more countries to increase tax and implement price policies on tobacco products, saying it would lower consumption, as Turkey’s case has proved.

Turkey raised the tax on tobacco products from 58 to 63 per cent in 2010, and from 63 to 65 per cent in 2011, leading to a drop of more than 3 per cent in the number of smokers, and saving an estimated 340,000 lives among current and would-be smokers.

Market survey reveals that a stick of cigarette in Nigeria costs between N5 to N10, while a pack of cigarette goes for N100 to N150, depending on the brand. This price makes the product readily affordable for low and medium-income earners.

Despite the damning statistics on annual global deaths resulting from tobacco-induced health complications, most smokers are negatively disposed to quitting. Chukwuma Nwoye, a tobacco smoker who spoke to TheCable, admitted knowledge of the dangers but said he won’t quit anytime soon.

“I know it is dangerous, but I think it has become a habit because each time I try, I find myself going back to it,” Nwoye said.

“I normally get cold, so when I take it, it keeps me warm and most times awake, which to me is an advantage. I pray I stop smoking, but not now.”

This decision will be detrimental to Nwoye’s health, according to Dr. Boye Balogun of the General Hospital, Igando, who highlighted some of the health implications of tobacco smoking as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, hypertension, pneumonia, infertility, aging and even blindness.

He advised smokers to quit and thereafter seek medical assistance for counselling and therapy. He also commended the Lagos State government for enacting a law that prohibits smoking in public places, and urged the National Assembly to expedite action on the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB).

“Smoking harms virtually all parts of the body, and what is bad about it is that it is easily affordable,” Balogun said.

“Four out of every five cancer deaths would not have happened. It can make it difficult for a man or a woman to have children. It affects the teeth, increases the risk of cataracts, and so many other illnesses. The House of Assembly should domesticate the WHO framework by passing the NTCB.”

WHO describes the tobacco epidemic as “one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced,” having killed nearly six million people a year.

“More than five million of those 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,” it stated in one of its reports.

Approximately one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco, accounting for one in 10 adult deaths; and up to half of current users will eventually die of a tobacco-related disease.