NATIONAL TOBACCO CONTROL BILL - IT MUST BE LAW!

PASS THE NATIONAL TOBACCO CONTROL BILL NOW

ERA calls for passage of tobacco control bill into law

ERA petitions Mark on Tobacco Bill

Pass Tobacco Control Bill, NGO Urges NASS

—Adeyera Olubunmi

A non-government organisation, NGO,  based in Ogba, Lagos State, Environmental Rights  Action, has called on the National Assembly to pass the National Tobacco Control Bill  into law without further delay.

Addressing a press conference to mark the 10th International Week of Resistance Against  Tobacco in Lagos on Monday, the NGO’s director of corporate accountability compaigns, Mr.  Akinbode Oluwafemi accused a particular tobacco firm which controls about 80 per cent of  the market of continued threat and misleading the yoouth into consumption of tobacco.

Akinbode claiemd that the tobacco company arranged secret smoking parties in different  parts of Nigeria especially in Ajegunle and Victoria Island in Lagos State. He said the  company was planning more tobacco smoking parties during the Yuletide from November this  year.

Akinbode said the tobacco companies have been lobbying political office holders with  partnership on public health issues, pretending to help farmers, retailers in order to  frustrate the passage of the law on tobacco control.

“It is important that while youth smoking continues to be on the increase, tobacco  companies continues to addict our youth they organise all over the country yet the  tobacco control bill is presently lying idle before the NASS,” Akinbode regretted. He  urged members of the NASS to be wary of the tobacco companies before they kill more of  our youth through uncontrolled consumption of tobacco.

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Youth Cautioned On Tobacco Addiction

-Zacheaus Somorin

Youths around the country have been warned to desist from smoking as the world marks the International Week of Resistance. At a press briefing held in Lagos, the Director, Cooperate Accountability Campaign and Administration, Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, stated that this year's event is aimed building momentum in the run-up to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) meetings in Uruguay in November.

The meetings are planned for a unified, international action to prevent the tobacco industry from derailing the FCTC's lifesaving measures.
He stated that "FCTC entered into force in 2005 and has since been ratified by more than 170 countries, representing close to 90 per cent of the world's population" saying that the "treaty aims to reverse an epidemic that today claims the life of one in 10 adults".
He explained further that "the single greatest obstacle to the treaty's success is tobacco industries' interference in public health policy - a practice that Article 5.3 of the treaty effectively forbids".

"Smoking especially among youths in Nigeria over the last few years has continued to rise. A survey conducted in 2001 shows that 9.1 per cent of Nigerian youths smoke cigarette. The figure by another survey conducted in 2008 has jumped to between 17 per cent and 27 per cent.Akinbode stated that the report on Global Tobacco Treaty Action Guide is intended to keep governments alert and make them anticipate and thwart attempts by the vested commercial interests of the tobacco industry to undermine the implementation of tobacco control policies. He said further that the report reinforces the need for governments to insulate their public health policies from interference by tobacco companies.
"In fact, a recent survey in four local governments of Adamawa state put smoking rate among the youth at 33.9 per cent. While smoking rate has been on the increase the Senate has been foot-dragging in passing the National Tobacco Control Bill," he posited, calling on the National Assembly to pass the National Tobacco Control Bill.

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ERA raises alarm over smoking parties in Lagos

Implementation of tobacco treaty will save 200m people –Report

-Mahmud Lalo

 

No fewer than 200 million people in the world will be saved by the year 2050 if the tobacco treaty is implemented, a report by the Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) and Corporate Accountability International has said.

The report also alleged tobacco companies interference in the implementation of the global tobacco treaty formally known as the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

“Tobacco companies interference remains the single greatest obstacle to this objective and a centerpiece of discussion at the November meeting,” the report said.

Director of Corporate Accountability International, Gigi Kellet, said tobacco companies initially tried to bully the global community out of advancing the treaty and that it is now attempting to bully countries out of enforcing it.

According to the report, each year, tobacco kills more than five million people and that 80 per cent of the victims are in underdeveloped countries.

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Tobacco firms impede implementation of FCTC, says ERA

ERA seeks passage of tobacco bill

-BY MICHAEL ORIE

THE Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) yesterday called on the National Assembly to pass into law the National Tobacco Control Bill, saying its delay has further promoted the activity of tobacco industries in the country.
    The call was made in the wake of the 10th International Week of the Resistance Against Tobacco Transnational, to expose the ever-evolving tactics of the tobacco industry to undermine public health through its lethal products.
   According to the Director, Accountability Campaigns and Administration, Environmental Rights Action, Oluwafemi Akinbode, the bill had been foot-dragging for the past two years without a particular reason for the delay.
  “We have an increase worries on why the bill has not been passed, as there is a clear indication the delay might have a political undertone,” he said.
   The one-week event that started yesterday is aimed at building momentum in the run-up to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) meetings in Uruguay in November this year for a unified international action to prevent the tobacco industry from derailing the FCTC’s life-saving measures.
    Akinbode, to prove the menace the delay has caused, said “in solidarity with our allies and NGOs across the globe taking part in several actions to expose some of the tobacco industry tactics to undermine the FCTC, ERA/FoEN has released a report from tobacco industry watchdog  – Corporate Accountability International – documenting persistent and ongoing efforts to obstruct the FCTC on the African continent and around the world. The report points to tobacco industry interference as the single greatest obstacle to the treaty realising its full potential.”
   He added that the report is intended to keep governments alert and make them anticipate and thwart attempts by the vested commercial interests of the tobacco industry to undermine the implementation of tobacco control policies.
   According to Akinbode,  Nigeria which is among the first few countries that signed the FCTC in 2004 and ratified it in 2005 is still foot-dragging in totally domesticating the treaty through the National Tobacco Control Bill which was hailed by local and international groups at the public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Health in July 2009 as a step to curbing “the gale of deaths which tobacco has wrought on this nation.”
“British America Tobacco (BAT) which controls over 80 per cent of the Nigerian cigarette market has continued to undermine the treaty by deliberate misinformation and illicit actions targeted at the youth.  For instance, in the last two months the company has held several secret smoking parties targeted at new smokers. Two of such parties were held in Ajegunle and Victoria Island, both in Lagos, and the company has announced plans to seize the opportunity of the upcoming yuletide to organise more.” 
   According to ERA, on June 15 this year the company had announced a position for Regulatory Affairs and External Communications Executive Staff to be based in Lagos. The job announcement which described a potential candidate as one who can “establish BAT as a trusted partner of regulators and a leading authority on tobacco control issues across Nigeria,” was said to have outlined that the company was looking for someone “to provide advocacy that ensure(s) that engagement is relevant to tobacco control thinking, both current and future in order to maximise transaction with stakeholders and demonstrate deep knowledge of tobacco control in the real world.”

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BREAKING NEWS!!! …..BAT So scared, so stupid!

With over thirty mean looking bouncers and AK 47 wielding policemen, BAT went ahead to organise its Golden Experience:The Real Gold Is  Inside  smoking  party at the Oceanview Restaurant,Lagos on Friday September 24.

With a huge sense of relief a worried BAT executive and scores of the bouncers shouted “we have seen him”, when they “captured” the  man who held the IV for Bamidele Lawal. Bamidele Lawal”s IV was the one we placed on this blog few days before the event.

Little did they realise that allowing somebody to use that IV was a decoy for the smooth passage of ERA/FoEN  volunteers and journalists that attended the event.

More very soon….

To the smoking party team, lets gets cracking for Rothmans in December!!!!!!!

Foot Dragging on Tobacco Bill

Enticing Kids to Smoke, One Hip Party at a Time

Remember the days when the Marlboro Man and Joe the Camel made cigarette smoking look utterly cool? Those days are long gone, right? Well, maybe for American youth, but not for kids in Nigeria.

According to Environmental Rights Action (ERA), a Nigerian NGO, one company -- British America Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) -- is actively targeting underage kids with their cigarettes. But this time it's not just with cool looking ads to perk kids' interest. The company is going to great lengths to actually put cigarettes into the hands of underage Nigerians.

Secret smoking parties are the latest in this tobacco company's desperate attempt to ensure that a new generation of Nigerians becomes hooked on their product. Here's how it works: invitation cards are secretly distributed; youth show up to the location of the party and are greeted by stern-looking security personnel who frisk them to ensure that no one has a camera; the kids then enter the hall to be welcomed by skimpily-clad girls who not only offer up cigarettes, but light them up for the kids right then and there. The next part really sets the stage for this movie-like scenario. While the party is going on -- often until 4 in the morning -- BATN officials are on the upper floors of the hall, cautiously observing their precious party.

No one ever asks the kids their age.

 

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ERA tackles BAT over ‘Bursting with Flavour’ promotion

ENVIRONMENTAL Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN, has frowned at British America Tobacco Nigeria, BAT’s ‘Bursting with Flavour’ promotion , saying it’s offensive to public taste.

Reacting to a smoking party organised by BAT for promoting Pall Mall brand of cigarette in Lagos,

ERA/FoEN threatened that it would “mobilise youths to storm and disrupt any other attempt to enlist our youths into smoking.”

In a statement issued in Lagos, ERA/FoEN, alleged that inside the hall, skimpily-dressed girls were assigned the roles of welcoming youngsters who were christened ‘consumers’.

The girls were said to have offered the consumers the Pall Mall brand of cigarette and immediately light it up.

The group noted that while the party was on with heavy plume of smoke from cigarette, officials of BAT were at the upper floor of hall cautiously observing the activities below.

“We hope the National Assembly is taking note of this objectionable activity of BATN. It is now time for our lawmakers to expedite action on the National Tobacco Control Bill which will compel tobacco companies in Nigeria to halt their double standards of operation,” said ERA/FoEN Director, Corporate Accountability Campaigns, Akinbode Oluwafemi.

In the last two years BAT has staged the smoking parties in Sokoto, Kano, Ilorin, Akure, Abeokuta, Ibadan and other parts of the country. The latest party was held recently at Ajegunle area of Lagos.

 
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War against tobacco thickens in Nigeria

- SEUN AKIOYE

Tobacco control activists in Nigeria are calling for the passage of Nigeria Tobacco Control Bill sponsored by Senator Olorunnibe Mamora even as the British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) battles opposition from several fronts.Up till this time things have worked perfectly for  members of the tobacco control community in  Nigeria. Led by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, the members have fought a relentless battle against the unregulated tobacco market in Nigeria. Sometimes too they have challenged the Nigerian government over its decision to invite the British American Tobacco (BAT) in 2001 into the country in an investment worth $150 million tobacco manufacturing plant in Oyo State.

Victory comes in trickles for the NTCA and its members. The Nigerian regulators soon banned smoking advertisements in the media, which was soon to be followed by some other forms of marketing restrictions in 2004. But the biggest stories of the tobacco control battle in Nigeria would come later.

In February 2009, Deputy Minority leader of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Olorunnibe Mamora, was on the floor of the Senate to present a bill entitled “A Bill for an Act to Repeal the Tobacco (Control) Act 1990 Cap T16 Laws of the Federation and to Enact the National Tobacco Control Bill.” It provided for the regulation or control of production, manufacture, sale, advertising, promotion, sponsorship of tobacco or tobacco products in Nigeria. The bill as proposed by the senator also seeks to domesticate the World Health Organizations Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC), a global treaty signed and ratified by Nigeria in October 2005.

Mamora, a two term senator from Lagos and a major player in the Senate knew his bill would face stiff opposition from the tobacco manufacturers and lobbyists, but he would be banking on his popularity and goodwill amongst his colleagues in the Nigerian upper legislative house. Mamora began by establishing the dangers in smoking, the inadequacy of Nigeria's health sector to cope with a tobacco epidemic. He progressed by reeling out statistics on the dangers associated with the use of tobacco products and how Nigeria is still unprepared to manage a tobacco epidemic. He also listed  Nigeria's obligation to domesticate the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), a World Health Organization (WHO) instrument to curb the global tobacco epidemic. Nigeria is a party to the convention having ratified the treaty in New York in October 2005. Mamora  then appealed to his colleagues, he touched a soft spot in the Senate: the constitutional duty of the Senate.

"A sober consideration for us as lawmakers is that it is not just a question of pro-activity when we pass this law; it is a constitutional duty and responsibility. Our constitution mandates us under its Chapter 11, The Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, to enact laws to protect all vulnerable groups, our community, the society and the environment."

The senators listened to Mamora and while referring the bill to the Senate Committee on Health, Senate President David Mark, warned the members against the manipulations and lobbying of the tobacco industry who may try to derail the passage of the bill.

Outside the National Assembly, tobacco control groups are strategizing. A prominent member of the group is Akinbode Oluwafemi, programme manager of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN).  For most of his career, Akinbode has been fighting the tobacco industry and has been campaigning for tobacco control. He is instrumental to almost all tobacco control policies in Nigeria.  Akinbode was there at the beginning when the tobacco industry went unchallenged in Nigeria and the country became a dumping ground of sorts for the tobacco industry. But the story has changed and this is how it happened.

The tobacco industry in Nigeria On September 24, 2001, former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo in his quest for Foreign Direct Investment signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the British American Tobacco (BAT) at the Park Lane Hotel London. The deal was worth $150 million and it involves the establishment of a cigarette manufacturing factory in Nigeria. The tobacco merchants promised thousands of jobs to Nigerians and were given generous concessions and a free hand to manufacture, sell, market and distribute tobacco products in the country.  The deal was signed, sealed and delivered but to the disbelief and anger of public health advocates in Nigeria. One of the protesting voices belongs to Oluwafemi.

"That was the first mistake of the Nigerian government, inviting the tobacco industry to Nigeria when it has become  a discredited industry and the truth is that government legislation  and control of its activities have made it difficult to do business in the Western countries, unfortunately the industry has turned to the developing world for survival," Akinbode told News Star.

The formal entrance of BAT into the Nigerian market was shrouded in mystery.  Internal documents of the company which were made available to News Star show that the company had been involved in cigarette smuggling into the country long before 2001. 

Internal documents also reveal that BAT had conducted a survey with the intention of determining the smoking pattern of Nigerian youths. A result of the survey shows that young people began to smoke around the age of nine. "New smokers enter the "market" at a very early age in many cases, as young as 8 or 9 years seems to be quite common." Continuing, it was admitted that most of the respondents of the survey had started smoking before they left junior school." 

Between 2001 and 2004, BAT's operation took an interesting dimension. The company employed several marketing, advertising tactics to market its products. The company organized series of musical events, fashion shows, street carnivals and even used Hollywood movies to promote Rothmans in the Experience IT campaign. At these events, underage persons were allegedly encouraged to smoke cigarettes before they gain entrance into the venues while inside free supply of cigarettes was ensured.  Tobacco control activists accused the company of employing "severely damaging tactics" that were no longer acceptable in the United States  and other developed countries to market aggressively to young people in Nigeria.  

The result of this, according to a statement from ERA/FoEN, is an alarming increase in the number of young people who are addicted to smoking. Investigations reveal that the company still engages in direct advertising to young people through a series of secret night parties organized in several parts of Nigeria.  Cigarettes are also still being sold in sticks which, according to the civil society, makes it accessible to young people.  The groups also want an increase in taxes on all tobacco products to discourage young people from starting out. 

BAT denies all the allegation which has also formed a part of the litigation in Nigeria.

A global epidemic

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco currently kills 5.4 million people every year globally and if left unchecked this number will increase to 8 million with devastating results for developing countries which will contribute about 80 per cent of that casualty. If in the 20th century the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people WHO says in the 21st century, it could kill one billion people.

Tobacco has also been said to be the only consumer product that is guaranteed to kill half of its regular users if used according to the manufacturers instructions. According to Olufunmi Shaba of the African Tobacco Control  Regional Initiative (ATCRI), a tobacco research institute based in Nigeria, "Tobacco use is a risk factor in six of the eight cancers in the world. A single stick contains more than four thousand carcinogens which are extremely dangerous to the human body."

In Nigeria, the situation looked pathetic.  A survey obtained from the 2006 census put the conservative number of Nigerians who smoke daily at 13 million. Also the Ministry of Health has warned that more young people are taking to smoking daily in Nigeria.

Also according to a survey by the National Expert Committee on Non-Communicable Disease in 2002 to determine smoking prevalent amongst secondary school students shows that 26.4 per cent of students interviewed have ever smoked cigarettes or used some form of tobacco products while 17.1per cent currently smokes. Another corroborative survey: The Global Youth Tobacco Survey conducted for Cross River State a year before reveals that 18.8 per cent of students have ever smoked cigarettes while 20.4 per cent said they would likely start smoking the following year.

Tobacco industry battles for survival

It is most unlikely that BAT bargained for the opposition it faced and so soon after it began operations in Nigeria and because the opposition did not come from competitors challenging its over 80 per cent dominance of the Nigerian markets, it made fighting back more difficult.

BAT has reiterated that it was interested in regulations that would help young people to stop smoking, the only snag being that it did not say that there are chemicals fused into the cigarettes to keep smokers addicted to it. The company also claimed to be assisting the regulatory bodies in regulating its activities. It has collaborated with the Nigerian Customs to curb smuggling by donating patrol vans; it voluntarily accepted a 30 per cent increase in warning signs on packs. But anti-tobacco groups are not impressed at all. According to Tosin Orogun, Communications Manager of ATCRI, what BAT wants is self regulation which is against the spirit and letter of Article 5.3 of the FCTC which warns against tobacco company interference in public health policy.  "You don't call the mosquito to the table when discussing a possible cure for malaria," he said.

BAT brought its case to the public arena during the public hearing on Mamora's bill on July 20-21, 2009. It argued that the bill would close down the industry if passed in its current form and open the floodgate to smugglers who may introduce contaminated   cigarettes thereby endangering the lives of Nigerians. But Mamora in an interview told News Star that the motivation for his bill is humanity. " The basic thing to say is humanity. When I say humanity, it is all encompassing. When you look in our Constitution under section 14 sub section 2, says "Security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government", that is under fundamental objectives and derivative principles of state policy, security and welfare; these are the fundamentals. And of course part of that welfare is safeguarding the health of the people and when you now take that further, particularly from my own background as a medical practitioner, it's no longer news, the hazards which tobacco cause to human health".

For now, the tobacco industry and the anti-tobacco advocates are locked in a battle for the souls of young people awaiting further actions from the Senate. 

But Phillip Jakpor, media officer to the ERA/FoEN said, "We call on the Senate and the leadership of the National Assembly to pass the National Tobacco Control Bill now. It has been a year after the public hearing organized by the Senate Committee on Health led by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello; the civil society is asking that the committee should return the bill to the plenary for prompt passage in order to save the lives of our young people."

Jakpor and his organization have another reason to be happy. In October 2009, Osun State House of Assembly passed the Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Bill 2009, making it illegal to smoke tobacco products in all public places in the state. The state imposed a fine of between N10,000 and N250,000 for violators. Only last week, Rivers State passed a similar bill banning smoking in all public places in the state.

Akinbode said he is optimistic the National Tobacco Control Bill will scale through but he can only hope.  His optimism might have been due to a lifeline given to him by Senate President David Mark while declaring open the public hearing ""We stand between health and economy that is the truth of the matter. People who are against it are worried about the impact on the health of Nigerians and people  who are for it are saying well, the nation stands to benefit from it. The simple question is, 'when do you begin to worry about economy? Is it when you are dead or when you are alive?"

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Why smoking feels good...

By Olatunji OLOLADE

Big girls don’t cry. Guess when they look like Abimbola Cole, they rise above little vanities, like tears. The 26-year old’s mien is so cool, so controlled, even in the grip of a terrible ailment.
In the dimness of the private ward, the Assistant Regional Manager of a South-east courier firm snuggled under her blanket. Fat has thinned on her bones and her favourite Dalmatian dog-spotted T-shirt is too big for her now.
Sweat beads glisten her arms and forehead and she wheezes for breath, like some child caught beneath its comfortable wooly blankets, drowning there. Her lungs probably wouldn’t take some air although she wills it to, eventually.
"Pele (Sorry) Abimbola," she whispered to herself in the third person. Her whisper, more like a gasp, pervaded the room like an interior dialogue of guilt and extenuation.
Drawn silence, sparse breathing, crushing symbolism; she simply displaces the banality of anything happening. And then she said, "I would give anything for a puff now but I dare not, do I? I started smoking at the age of 15…my first cousin; Bodunde who was 17 at the period was a chain smoker. She probably picked up the habit from one of her boyfriends. But I couldn’t care then. All I felt was a sense of freedom. I was getting to rebel in my own little way and fit into some peer culture…hmm…I sucked on Rothmans Pallmall like my life depended on it. The fact that I had a boyfriend named Rotimi imbued my habit some poetry or sort. He smoked the same brand too and between us; we consumed at least a pack and a half everyday. Even when we had little to eat, it paid us to suck on cancer sticks…yeah, that was the name we coined for it…cancer sticks."
There is much pain in her recollection. Bitter-sweet memories steal from her lips with a nostalgic peal. The effect is awesome.
"Now they said I got lung cancer (Non-small cell Stage three lung cancer) but it’s funny that I feel no regret. Whatever will be will be; a human has to die in some way," she says with the perception of someone who understands that peace might be attained by the suppression of certain feelings, like regret.
That affect is somewhat elegiac which made talking to the sick undergraduate not just exploratory but oftentimes, charming. It’s a mood that says: "This pretty young lady’s been there."
Shakiru Agarawu too has been there but he summoned the courage to get off early enough from what he recollects as "a first class journey to hell." The 44-year old proprietor of a Laundromat disclosed that he started smoking at age 12. He said: "It was a given in my neighborhood that you either smoke marijuana or cigarettes. I opted for cigarettes because I was scared of the bad stereotype given smokers of marijuana. So I started smoking cigarette. At first, I used to hide the habit from my folks but no sooner than I secured university admission, I summoned courage to light a stick in front of my siblings and then my mother. She was totally against the habit but the more she condemned it, the more I stuck to the habit. Hence her joy know no bounds when after 20 years of chain-smoking, I decided to quit."
Agarawu had his epiphany at a chance encounter with the father of a childhood friend. The latter was battled advanced stage 4 cancer until his death. "He suffered a terrible stroke that led to his death 13 days before his 81st
birthday. The man was a chain-smoker," disclosed Agarawu.

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TOBACCO FACTS: WHERE IS THE NATIONAL TOBACCO CONTROL BILL?

Smoking Now Kills More Nigerian Women

by Annette Oghenerhaboke

Death from smoking-related ailments is on the increase among Nigerian women

Smoking among women is on the increase globally and this is doing a lot of harm to their cardio vascular system, lung function, reproductive system and bone density. Latest reports indicate that out of the more than one billion smokers worldwide, 250 million are women. About 5.5 percent of them die annually from smoking-related ailments. “The number of women that smoke would triple over the next generation and more than 200 million will die prematurely if nothing is done about it.” Kemi Odukoya, a doctor with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, said during a recent seminar held in Lagos.
Odukoya, who observed that women are so important that when they die, their death affects the family, society and the nation, said the increase in the number of women smoking in the less developed countries like Nigeria is worrisome. “The current trend shows that men smoke more than women and if we don’t do anything about it, that gap will narrow and that means the female will start smoking just as much as men and in some countries, females are even already smoking more than men,” she said.
According to a recent study by the World Health Organisation, WHO, tobacco accounts for nearly one in three cancer deaths worldwide. The study also revealed that in Nigeria, there are more than 13 million active smokers out of which more than five million die annually. Of this number, approximately 1.5 million are women and unless urgent action is taken, tobacco could kill more than eight million people by 2030, out of which 2.5 million would be women.
Medical experts say smoking affect a woman’s mental, social and economic health. Other major health effects peculiar to women are menstrual problems, pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility and premature menopause. Odukoya said tobacco is a major risk factor for about 44 different kinds of diseases and that more than 4,000 toxic chemicals have been found in tobacco smoke. And because women bear the greatest burden of environmental tobacco smoke, they are at risk of particular health hazards. “Women that smoke during pregnancy are more likely to have ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy is when a pregnancy does not form inside the womb and this can kill because the baby has been poisoned by cigarette smoke.”
Apart from the risk of fertility problems, they more are likely to have spontaneous abortion, a condition known as miscarriage. They are also at risk of delivering babies with low birth weight while their baby runs the risk of sudden infant death. Smoking also increases the risks of painful and irregular menstruation.
Unfortunately, most women are not aware of the dangers of smoking. Lanre Oginni, executive director, All Nigeria Consumers Movement Union, ANCOMMU, said while many tobacco users generally know that tobacco use is harmful, studies have revealed that most of them are unaware of the true risks.
It was in a bid to address this problem that the Environment Rights Action / Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN recently held a seminar to commemorate the 2010 World No Tobacco Day, WNTD. The WNTD tagged: “Tobacco and Women, with emphasis on marketing to women,” condemned the marketing strategies employed by the tobacco industries and their tactics of luring women into smoking. Betty Abah, gender focal person, ERA/FoEN, said the theme was timely because it seeks to highlight the dangers that the world face when women, whom she described as “mothers, home makers, great dreamers and achievers,” fall deeper into the snare that turns them into puffers. “But very prominently, this year’s theme seeks to expose the ongoing subtle, sly, but aggressive marketing strategies that the tobacco industry employs to make tobacco use attractive to women, to hook them as lifelong smokers and therefore, continue in this evil, dehumanising circle,” she said.
In order to curb this problem, Akinbode Oluwafemi, programme manager, ERA/FoEN, urged Nigerians to pressurise the government to implement the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, FCTC, that regulates tobacco marketing to minors, ban smoking in public places, and ultimately reduce the harms caused to women and girls and everyone from the use of this dangerous product.

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ERA hails Osun on smoking ban

By Solaade Ayo-Aderele

The Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria has commended the Osun State Government for signing the Osun State Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Bill 2009 into law, saying the decision is one of the most far-reaching efforts taken by any state in the federation to safeguard public health.
The bill prohibits smoking in cinemas, theatres or the stadium, medical establish-ments, hotels, offices, schools and public transportation, nursery institutions and lifts.
Another major highlight of the bill is the prohibition of smoking in both private and public vehicles that have non smoking occupants below the age of 18 on board.
In a statement issued in Lagos and made available to our correspondent, ERA/FoEN said that the Osun State Government had demonstrated its responsiveness to the well-being of its people and public health and should be emulated by other states.
“The Nigerian tobacco control community lauds this enviable step by the Osun State Government, as it will go a long way in checkmating the growing number of tobacco-induced deaths that have been on steady increase,” said ERA/FoEN Programme Manager, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi.
Oluwafemi however noted that, “Paradoxically, while Osun State has taken practical steps in safe-guarding public health, the National Assembly is still foot-dragging on translating the all-encompassing National Tobacco Control Bill into law, even with the overwhelming support that the bill received at the public hearing on July 20-21 last year.”
Reiterating ERA/FoEN’s call for the National Assembly to expedite action on the NTCB, Oluwafemi said “Nigerians are dying by the seconds due to tobacco addiction, while tobacco manufacturers laugh all the way to the bank.
“Every single day that we delay the implementation of strict laws, there will be more deaths, more ill-health and the economy will suffer,” he said.
“The trend globally shows that only far-reaching laws can stop the gale of deaths spurred by tobacco smoke,” he argued.
According to the World Health Organisation, tobacco currently kills 5.4 million people worldwide, and if current trend continues, it will kill about eight million by 2015.

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Preventing Tobacco Addiction Among Our Women

The recently released statistics by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of an increasing global trend of women and girls who have taken to the deadly habit of tobacco smoking is scary. Of the 5.4 million victims that die every year, 1.5 million are girls and women. In half of the 151 countries recently surveyed, approximately as many girls use tobacco as boys. WHO even claims that Nigeria is not only amongst these countries but now has more female smokers than males. Contestable as this may seem, it is no doubt a warning signal that urgent intervention from all concerned organs of government is necessary.

According to WHO’s Director General, Dr. Margaret Chan, the trend in some countries is “extremely worrisome”. She also asserts that that tobacco use “is neither liberating nor glamorous”, contrary to the advert campaign of the marketers. It is probable that this misconception is helping to lure more girls into the widening web of the addictive consumption.
The theme of the 2010 anti-tobacco campaign is focused on ‘tobacco and women’, with an emphasis on marketing to women and the concomitant harmful effects. Similarly, the need for governments to ban the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco is being highlighted, with the aim of eliminating tobacco smoke from all public places. The goal is in tandem with WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
A new strategy being used by manufacturers and marketers is to link smoking with attractiveness, which easily fascinates young girls, ultimately making them helpless victims. Nigeria’s inclusion in countries with worsening tobacco use, it has been revealed, is also traceable to the harmful effects of passive or second-hand smoking. Also, growing social frustration caused by poor governance has led to mass youth unemployment and the erroneous belief that smoking offers some relief, even if temporarily. Up North, seasonal harsh weather sometimes induces more people into smoking. Unfortunately, they end up harming their pulmonary system more than they care to know.
Smoking refers basically to the habit of inhaling smoke from cigarettes. Not a few teenagers imbibe it from their parents, relations and friends, who are smokers. The health consequences are grave, however, for the users as well as those around them. According to the WHO, tobacco smoke contains some 4,000 deadly chemicals, chief of which are vaporized nicotine, carbon monoxide and tar, concentrated at the end of the cigarette stick. The first signs of ill health arising from tobacco use is a slight cough, which graduates to bronchial cough, that later degenerates into lung cough. Research specialists explain that the toxic chemicals settle at the junction of the bronchus and bronchioles, where most cases of lung cancer begin. In addition, the membranes lining the respiratory system become thickened with the irritating chemicals. This causes the removal of the protective cilia which normally absorb dust and pathogenic microbes that could cause life-threatening diseases.
Once the smoke is continually inhaled it contracts the air passage and constricts the voice box or larynx, leading to swollen vocal cords and smokers’ cough. In severe cases, it causes chronic bronchitis and laryngeal cancer. In addition, the presence of the aldehydes in smoke worsens stomach ulcer. Smoke reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood, thereby weakening the power of the cells to function optimally. Its deposits narrow the arteries, causing gangrene, leading to amputation for some victims.
Researches since 1939 have indicated the bad effects of smoking in advanced countries. But the WHO says that today over 80 percent of the world’s one billion smokers live in low- and middle-income countries. This reflects the fact that several major cigarette manufacturers have relocated from the advanced economies with their more stringent anti-tobacco laws, and are now consciously exporting death to the developing countries. According to the Programme Manager of Environmental Rights in Nigeria, an affiliate of Friends Of The Earth, Akin Oluwafemi, two persons die each day in Lagos hospitals as a consequence of tobacco–related ailments.
This is a dangerous trend, and we are alarmed, in this connection, that the Senator Olorunimbe Mamora-sponsored Anti-tobacco Bill is suffering from what he terms deliberate moves to scuttle it by some of his colleagues. The fact that the Senate Committee on Health is headed by a female lawmaker, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, and the focus of this year’s anti-tobacco theme is on discouraging women from smoking, should help to speed up the bill’s passage into law.
Expansion in economic production, leading to mass creation of jobs especially for the idle youth, will reduce the helplessness of the government in accepting the short-term economic benefits of tobacco manufacturing in the country. What use is it, in the long run, to offer jobs to some citizens in tobacco factories and farms, and pay taxes into the public coffers, only for the people’s health to be destroyed some years later at a prohibitive cost to public health care and citizens’ purses? The government cannot fold its arms and allow this preventable scourge to ravage the public, already battling with a legion other woes. No effort should be spared in discouraging Nigerian smokers, especially the future mothers of our children, from preventable death.

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