Follow Us on Google
From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
Public health experts have raised serious concerns over tobacco use in the Southeast region, warning that the region must not allow smoking rates to surge, amid growing evidence of rising tobacco consumption in developing countries.
The warning came at a tobacco control seminar, held in Enugu, organised by the Centre for Development and Reproductive Health for journalists from across the South East.
Speaking at the event, Professor Daniel Oshi of the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, said urgent steps were needed to strengthen public awareness, media engagement, and medical training, in order to prevent a looming tobacco crisis in the region.
Oshi, a Professor of Public Health Education in the Department of Community Health and Psychiatry, said although smoking rates have declined in many developed countries due to sustained public health interventions, tobacco use is increasing across several developing nations — a trend he warned the South East must guard against.
He stressed that the inclusion of the South East in the project was deliberate, noting that global health challenges often manifest first within local communities.
“At the end of the day, whatever affects people globally is first reflected in their immediate communities. That is why interventions must start from home. When we had the opportunity to implement this project, we ensured that the Southeast was part of it,” he said.
He said the seminar was designed to equip journalists with the knowledge and tools required to intensify tobacco control advocacy and drive sustained public sensitisation in the region.
Other News
He urged media practitioners to take tobacco reporting seriously, describing the press as a critical force in shaping public behaviour and influencing policy direction.
Beyond awareness campaigns, Oshi called for structural reforms in medical education, particularly the integration of tobacco cessation and cancer-related counselling into undergraduate training for healthcare professionals.
“We are saying that healthcare professionals should be properly trained during their undergraduate years to provide basic counselling to smokers on how to quit. That is the key area we want included in medical training,” he explained.
He noted that early training for doctors, dentists, medical laboratory scientists and other health workers would strengthen frontline support for smokers seeking to quit.
Oshi clarified that the proposal strictly centres on cessation counselling and does not include advocacy for electronic cigarettes or nicotine replacement therapy in school curricula.
He further highlighted that traditional cigarettes contain more than 7,000 chemicals, many of them harmful and cancer-causing, underscoring the health dangers communities in the South East must take seriously.
Other public health experts at the seminar emphasised the need to expand access to approved smoking cessation services, including behavioural counselling and regulated therapeutic interventions, particularly in low and middle income settings.
