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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Despite admonition from health experts against tobacco consumption, millions of people across of the world, Nigeria inclusive, seem to have turned a deaf ear to the warning. Many of them pay with their health, as reports from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other resource centres indicate that millions of people die annually in Nigeria and beyond from tobacco-related ailments.
Nigeria, on May 31, 2022, joined the rest of the world to commemorate the World No Tobacco Day, with the theme “Tobacco: Threat to Our Environment,” which has become an annual “ritual” in the quest for an end to tobacco consumption.
It provided an opportunity for concerned individuals and groups to raise global awareness on the dangers of increasing tobacco consumption, especially among youths, with higher expectations that global leaders would take action to control the menace and save the future of the world.
As the world marked the event, statistics from WHO painted a fearful picture, showing that tobacco constitutes danger to society. It disclosed that there were 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke and at least 250 of them were harmful and more than 50 were cancinogenic.
On June 4, 2018, the Federal Government introduced higher taxes on tobacco and some alcoholic products to discourage easy access, especially among younger populations whom records have shown were increasingly coming down with tobacco-related ailments.
Before then, minister of health, Dr. Isaac Adewole, had raised the alarm that the posterity of Nigeria was threatened by the increasing interest of young people in tobacco consumption and other drugs, suggesting a ban of the product or make it unreachable and unaffordable for certain categories of Nigerians: “If care is not taken, Nigeria may have individuals in the future who will be unable to contribute to the economy due to ill health largely caused by tobacco and other poor lifestyle.”
Meanwhile, experts and other observers have indicated that more women were taking to tobacco smoking than men.
Tobacco and human health
Studies have confirmed that tobacco consumption is not only dangerous but also destructive to the health of the smoker and the next person, if the tobacco is consumed in enclosed spaces (second-hand smoking).
WHO revealed that almost half of the world’s population breathes air polluted by smoke from tobacco. Also, over 40 per cent of children have, at least, a smoking parent, in addition to the fact children account for a large percentage of premature deaths attributable to second-hand smoke.
It added that second-hand smoke caused serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer, in adults. In infants, it caused sudden death syndrome, while, in pregnant women, it caused low birth weight.
However, neither ventilation nor filtration can reduce the effects of tobacco smoke indoors to levels considered acceptable to human health; only 100 per cent smoke-free environments can provide effective protection. Contrary to common beliefs, smoke-free environments can only be supported by smokers and non-smokers.
WHO warned that tobacco has devastating effects on the health of addicts. Studies confirmed that tobacco consumption is majorly responsible for rising cases of cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which include emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Tobacco consumption also increases the risk for tuberculosis, eye diseases and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis, among others. It was also confirmed that long-term consumption of tobacco could reduce the efficiency of human memory responsible for everyday tasks.
WHO’s intervention
WHO recently restated its worries that aside from environmental challenges associated to tobacco farming, millions of lives are lost to tobacco consumption annually in spite of several campaigns against tobacco consumption.
Its regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said WHO has championed campaigns for African countries to take stiffer measures against tobacco farming and consumption, or key into its programmes designed the eliminate or significantly reduce the number of tobacco consumers and farmers.
She said WHO committed manpower, resources and logistics to assist farmers in Africa to switch from growing tobacco to alternative crops: “So far, 330 Kenyan farmers have switched from growing tobacco to growing beans, with the first harvest yielding more than 200 metric tonnes. This is extremely encouraging for our plans to roll out the programme to other tobacco-growing countries on the continent.
“This is the kind of hard evidence that is essential to change the mindsets of farmers and governments who believe that tobacco is a cash crop with the potential to generate economic growth.
“In Malawi, for example, tobacco accounts for about half of exports. The comparative number for Zimbabwe is 13 per cent, and 6 per cent and 3 per cent for Mozambique and Tanzania, respectively.
“These are, unfortunately, short-term gains that are eclipsed by the long-term consequences of increased food insecurity, sustained debt for farmers, illness and poverty among farm workers and widespread environmental damage. Tobacco-related illness in the African region accounts for 3.5 per cent of annual total health expenditure.”
She said the theme of this year’s event, “Tobacco: Threat to our environment” was designed to highlight the environmental impact of the entire tobacco cycle, starting from cultivation, production and distribution, to the toxic waste it generates.
She encouraged countries in Africa and beyond to accelerate implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which provides the guidance to advance the creation of smoke-free environments, to create programmes to help tobacco users to quit and support for the application of excise tax and other financial countermeasures: “Reducing tobacco consumption is a key catalyst towards realising the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But as the environmental evidence illustrates, the benefits go far beyond health.”
Moeti was concerned that while tobacco leaf production was decreasing globally, the reverse was the case in the WHO African region. It now accounts for 12 per cent of all tobacco leaf internationally, with nearly 90 per cent grown in the East and Southern sub-regions, including Zimbabwe, 26 per cent; Zambia, 16.4 per cent; Tanzania, 14.4 per cent; Malawi, 13.3 per cent; and Mozambique, 13 per cent.
Way out
Dr. Iseko Iseko, consultant physician/cardiologist, CardioCare Multispecialty Hospital, Abuja, submitted that: “Quitting smoking is easy and difficult, but determination is required from the side of the smoker and people around.
“Any individual that wants to quit tobacco consumption needs a variety of approaches either alone or in group to enable him stop and maintain long periods of abstinence.
“Some of the approaches include individual will, family and friends’ support, group support, psychotherapy and medications. All or one of the above is needed to effectively stop the habit of tobacco consumption.
“On the bystanders that, perhaps, inhale second-hand smoke, the effects are similar. It has also been responsible for the sudden death of infants and newborns.
“Smoking is addictive and very difficult to stop because the brain of the smoker forms neural pathways and needs higher levels of tobacco to stay stimulated or create similar effects. Additionally, cravings make it difficult for the individual to concentrate or have normal physiological processes without the substance.”
He expressed concerns that tobacco consumption appeared to be on the rise, and the troubling part was the use of hookah pipes and other forms of tobacco that even give a much higher dose.
Smoker’s experience
Anselm Okhai, a tobacco consumer resident in Apo, Abuja, said he started smoking very early in life in Kaduna. He was exposed early to tobacco in the environment where he lived, especially from his medical doctor neighbour.
His narration: “Because I saw people around me smoke, I was forced to taste it. I hid it from my family while I was in secondary school, but had to go all the way after secondary school. I am over 40 years and I still smoke after several cautions about the dangers of smoking.
“I missed the first woman I wanted to marry a few years ago when she discovered that I smoke. I desire to quit smoking but it is not easy; but I have started the steps. I pray that God will help me to succeed.”
A 28-year-old man, Nura Isah, said he has been smoking since he was 19: “On several occasions, I have been punished for smoking but that has not stopped me from smoking. I have been exposed to the dangers of smoking but it has been difficult for me to stop.”
Hamisu Abubakar said he quit smoking after he almost lost his life to an ailment caused by tobacco: “It was a very difficult decision to quit smoking but I had to consider my life. If not that I suffered that ailment, nothing would have made me to quit tobacco consumption.”
For Linda Akon, smoking began from her first year in the University of Calabar (UNICAL), Cross River State: “I really don’t know how I developed the taste for smoking to the point that I have become addictive to smoking.
“There was a day I almost got caught during work hours. I was so uncomfortable at work that I decided to take a break. I went straight to my car to smoke, little did I know that someone was monitoring me. It was God that saved me that day.”
Janet Ekeh said she was in doubt about the things they said tobacco consumption causes: “How do you want me to believe you when I see professors, medical doctors and highly educated and enlightened people smoking tobacco as if it’s food? I hesitantly believe the statement that ‘smokers are liable to die young’.
“My lecturers in school, undergraduate and postgraduate, perform better when there are packets of cigarettes and bottles of beer around them. These are the people who teach us that tobacco consumption is destructive to human health.”
Surajo Dahiru, another smoker, said: “I hardly spend half an hour without smoking cigarettes or marijuana. That’s the level it has reached.
“I was in US during the winter period. I was forced to smoke and drink some gin to keep my body warm. Since then, it has become part of me even though I desire to quit smoking, but it has been a difficult decision.”
