A comprehensive law to regulate the manufacturing, advertising distribution and consumption of tobacco products in Nigeria. It is aimed at domesticating the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)
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Monday, October 11, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Youth Cautioned On Tobacco Addiction
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.
SOURCE
Monday, May 31, 2010
Girls smoke more than boys in Nigeria –WHO
The 2010 World No Tobacco Day (which is today) focuses on the need to ban all forms of promotion of tobacco even with a new direction to fight the recruitment of the womenfolk into smoking, writes SEMIU OKANLAWON
It may sound odd, but the World Health Organisation says more girls than boys smoke tobacco; giving new reasons why the anti-tobacco crusade must now address the womenfolk.
When on Friday, WHO called for a special protection of women and girls against tobacco, it was not as if the organisation had assumed the other members of the society needed not to be shielded from the harmful effects of what is perceived globally to be an addictive consumption.
It was because global researches have indicated a growing, worrisome trend in the habit of women and girls who take tobacco as a thing of glamour and status. WHO’s new direction of campaign is to press home the focus of this year’s World Tobacco Day.
WHO’s Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, said, “The trends in some countries are extremely worrisome,” adding, “Tobacco use is neither liberating nor glamorous. It is addictive and deadly.”
This 2010 campaign theme, “Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women, focuses on the harmful effects of tobacco marketing towards women and girls. It also highlights the need for governments to ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and to eliminate tobacco smoke in all public and work places as provided in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,” according to the global health body.
Nigeria, where the campaign against smoking has been gaining ground through the efforts of the Environmental Rights Action, is ranked among countries which WHO Director-General said the trend is pretty worrisome.
Smoking may be one habit that is generally perceived to be rife among males, but a recent survey, according to WHO, shows that there is a growing rate of tobacco use amongst girls and women. Women and girls are said to represent 20 per cent global smoking population.
“In half of the 151 countries recently surveyed for trends in tobacco use among young people, approximately as many girls uses tobacco as boys. More girls use tobacco than boys in some of the countries, including Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cook Islands, Croatia, Czech Republic, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria and Uruguay.
“Women are a major target for the tobacco industry in its effort to recruit new users to replace those who will quit or die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. The leading preventable cause of death, tobacco use kills more than five million people every year, about 1.5 million of whom are women,” says WHO on Friday.
And what is the nexus between tobacco and women? Or better still; what is the attraction? After strategic manners in which the anti-smoking campaigners across the world had tackled the recruitment of youths into smoking by tobacco manufacturers and marketers, there is said to be a new path manufacturers and marketers are following to force smoke down the throats of women. By linking smoking with beauty, young girls are easily fascinated and are consequently recruited into the habit.
Analysts are of the view that the same method employed in using the media to present slim girls as paragon of African beauty is being promoted to make young girls believe that their beauty is incomplete without tobacco addiction.
But it is not only those who engage in the practical habit of direct smoking that are considered to be smokers. Passive smokers abount through their inhaling of smokes in public places.
The inclusion of Nigeria amongst countries considered to be having a disturbing rate of smoking girls further reinforces the points being raised by Nigerian crusaders that the government needs to act fast before tobacco-related diseases add to its alleged unenviable record in health management.
Programme Manager of the Environmental Rights in Nigeria, an affiliate of the Friends of the Earth, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, said the focus on the need to save women and girls from smoking, which is the theme of this year’s tobacco day, should compel some persons in high places to act fast.
“It will interest you that the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, is a woman. And we believe that where the interests of women are concerned, a woman in the status of the senator should use her position to ensure the welfare of her fellow womenfolk,” say Oluwafemi.
His call is on the strength of a bill which was said to have been presented to the Senate by a member, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora which, according to him, is yet to be passed into law.
Among other things, the bill seeks to ban smoking in public and end all forms of promotion of the product in the country.
Mamora, who spoke with our correspondent on Sunday, said there had been deliberate moves to scuttle the bill at the National Assembly, adding that some of his colleagues who swore to defend the wellbeing of Nigerians were engaging in acts that are inconsistent with their oath of office.
Mamora said, “No amount of propaganda; no amount of purported job creation by the British American Tobacco can justify the number of lives being destroyed through the use of tobacco. This is because certain incontrovertible evidence have been established linking tobacco use to various diseases.”
In a separate statement on the 2010 World Tobacco Day, Oluwafemi called for the passing into law of the bill as a sign of government’s readiness to recognise the global concern for the health of its citizenry.
He stated, “It is a fact that dangers are associated with smoking. The World Health Organisation estimated that 5.4 million people die every year due to tobacco-related diseases, with majority of these deaths happening in developing countries.
“Tobacco is the only consumer product that is guaranteed to kill half its consumers if used according to manufacturers’ intention. It contains more than 4,000 dangerous chemicals harmful to the body.
“It is also a fact that stringent measures aimed at reducing smoking in Europe and America have driven the tobacco industry to developing countries like Nigeria, where the industry continues to flout regulations, marketing to young and impressionable youths, and hooking them on smoking.”
Indeed, another recent survey, according to Oluwafemi, also shows that two persons die each day in Lagos hospitals as a result of tobacco-related ailments.
With the theme of this year’s event, many expect that the focus will now shift to demystifying those messages being sold to girls which make them embrace smoking as a way of upping their beauty profiles.
Perhaps, that will compel manufacturers and marketers to also review strategies. But then, the health of the citizenry is at the centre of it all.
SOURCE
Friday, October 23, 2009
Group urges National Assembly to pass tobacco control bill
By Olukorede Yishau
A non-governmental organisation, Environmental Rights Action (ERA), yesterday urged the National Assembly to pass the National Tobacco Control Bill.The bill, sponsored by Senator Olorunimbe Mamora, is before the Senate. Speaking at a news conference in Lagos, ERA's Programme Manager, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, said: "Smoking kills. Tobacco currently kills over 5.4 million people annually, over 70 per cent of those deaths occur in developing countries."
Akinbode said contrary to the argument of tobacco giants, "the bill as appropriately titled is to control tobacco consumption so as to reduce the deaths, ill-health, social, economic and environmental costs associated with tobacco use. The bill has no provision about outlawing or forcefully closing down tobacco factories."
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
TOBACCO CONTROL BILL : Making a choice between economy and citizens health
-IKENNA OBI
In its attempt to rationalize the legislation of a Tobacco Control Act which seeks among other things to prohibit tobacco products advertising and promotion or the sponsorship of any project or programme bordering on entertainment or tourism by tobacco manufacturers, the Senate has in a recent public hearing granted audience to stakeholders. It would be recalled that the bill for tobacco control sponsored by Senator Olorunimbe Mamora had since February this year been a subject of legislative debate in the upper house. A debate that has created a divide between those who see in tobacco manufacturing a blessing as jobs are created and those who see nothing but disease and death which flows from tobacco manufacturing and sale in the country.
Coming at the heels of the imposition of strict legislative control against tobacco manufacturing in Europe and the United States of America, the on going attempt to ban the sale of tobacco products to persons below 18 and the prohibition of advertisement in promotions by tobacco companies in Nigeria through the Tobacco Control Act creates a gloomy future for an industry. It is on record that the British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) a major tobacco products manufacturer in the country pays up to 80 billion Naira as tax to government coffers. In addition, BATN has executed and still executes many corporate social responsibility projects across the country. It is estimated that the closure of BATN activities in the country would lead to the loss of more than 500,000 jobs, thus affecting the well being of millions of dependants.
However, the coalition of forces that insist on the stringent control of tobacco manufacturing, sale and promotion in the country have reeled out statistics proving that tobacco brings nothing but disease and death and avoidable health expenditure. A recent survey conducted in hospitals in Lagos state revealed that up to 2 person die every day as a result of tobacco related diseases. This gives an idea of the colossal human cost of tobacco in a country where accurate statistics are not available. The stunning 400,000 deaths recorded in the United States of America as result of tobacco products consumption gives an impression of the negative impact of tobacco consumption on human health.
In kick starting the debate on the Tobacco Control bill Senator Mamora commented on the fact that the increasing hostility of the economic environment in Europe and America has driven tobacco manufacturers like BATN to the developing countries where they exploit the ignorance of the people and the laxity of government to continue the production and sale of products that are harmful to peoples health.
The plan to establish a BATN factory in the country was made known on September 24 2001 with the intention then to expend up to $150 million dollars in constructing a modern cigarette factory in Ibadan . Then, two years into the first tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo and at a time when the country was direly in need of foreign investment, BATN was perceived more as a partner in economic progress. However the entry of BATN in the country at the time met with pockets of opposition. Such opposition mounted by civil society was overwhelmed by an overwhelming wave of euphoria that gripped government bureaucrats over foreign investment. It would be recalled that the then Minister of Industry, Kola Jamodu noted that the coming of BATN is a "considerable investment" which "demonstrates that the new Nigeria is on track… We are on course to meet the ambitious investment targets…
Today, 8 years after its decision to fully enter the Nigeria market as a manufacturer of tobacco products, BATN is under pressure both from concerned civil society organizations and legislators to organize its activities in the country in a way that would no endanger the health of ignorant people.
Commenting during the public hearing in the Senate, BATN Regional Affairs manager, Tony Okwoju captured the major fear of the tobacco manufacturing sector by noting that the purpose of tobacco control should be restricted to reducing the effect of tobacco consumption on public health not to force tobacco companies out of business.
Considering the estimate that up to 6.5 million Nigerians are already prone to tobacco related deaths, the Senate according to the Senate President is faced with a legislative challenge bordering on allowing a liberal regime for tobacco consumption and thus put more lives on the death row or enact the Tobacco Control Act into a law and stand the risk of endangering the fortunes of tobacco manufacturing in the country with attendant revenue loss to government- in this era of serious drive for revenues and the loss of jobs thus swelling the unemployment rate in the country.
Will there be a compromise- a middle ground that would create a win-win scenario or would the boom days of cigarette manufacturing, promotions, sponsorships and consumption be over ? But the fears remain that the stifling of tobacco manufacturing in the country may create a boom for the smuggling of tobacco products into the country through the nation's porous borders through the illicit connivance of unscrupulous customs officials.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Group chides Alao-Akala over BATN
The Oyo State governor had said that the tobacco company was contributing to the economy of his state and that he would frustrate moves to close down the company.
JATH, in a statement signed by its Programme Manager, Mr. Yinka Olugbade, said that Alao-Akala’s statement shows that he was not well-informed by his advisers.
According to the group, "what the governor is interpreting as moves to close down BAT is the National Tobacco Control bill sponsored by Senator Olorunimbe Mamora, which has passed the second reading at the National Assembly, which has nothing to do with the closure of BATN."
The group said that Governor Alao-Akala ought to have found out the real intent of the bill before attempting to shoot it down.
"This bill is all about properly regulating the activities of tobacco companies operating in Nigeria and not only BATN. The bill seeks to prohibit sale of cigarette to underage. It seeks to make it an offence to sell cigarettes in pieces. It seeks to make tobacco companies put graphic warnings telling people of harmful effects of tobacco smoking in order for them to make informed decision about whether to smoke or not. It also seeks to ensure that tobacco products are not readily available because of its cheap prices," said JATH.
The group described as unfortunate that Alao-Akala has allowed himself to be used by BATN as part of its propaganda to escape regulation.
The group faults Alao-Akala’s claim that BATN has contributed to job creation all over the country, arguing that more people have lost their lives as a result of smoking of cigarette.
The group said "BATN has only employed about 1,000. Countless others have died directly or indirectly through cigarette consumption. So, Governor Alao-Akala should find ought his facts before commenting. That he made the comment after embarking on a facility tour of BATN also shows that he was out on a mischief mission. He should go and get a copy of the bill and read before making comments."
Friday, March 13, 2009
Group chides Adedibu over tobacco bill
A Non-Governmental Organisation, Journalists Action on Tobacco and Health (JATH) has criticized the Chairman, Senate Committee on Industries, Senator Kamoru Adedibu, over his statement that the passage of the national tobacco control bill into law will throw 400,000 people into the unemployment market.
The group said it was unfortunate that Adedibu, who represents Oyo South at the Senate, also promised to mobilise his colleagues to ensure that the bill was not passed.
In a statement issued by the group’s Programme Manager, Mr. Yinka Olugbade, it said it was not surprised that Adedibu described the bill as a “misplaced priority” for the country.
“We are not surprised he described the bill as a misplaced priority, after all, he was speaking at the 2008 Farmers’ Productivity Award ceremony organised by the British American Tobacco Nigeria and BAT, one of the tobacco giants whose businesses have caused the death of many, made many to be down with cancers and kill many as a result of second hand smoking. They endanger the lives of millions and profit only a few,” said the group.
The bill being sponsored by Senator Olorunimbe Mamora prohibits the sale of cigarettes to anyone less than 18 years and restricts the sale of cigarettes to 1,000 metres radius from schools, playgrounds and anywhere that young and under-age persons congregate.
Jath said this bill, which also seeks to abolish all forms of tobacco advertisement and promotions, sponsorships or endorsements; prohibits the sale of cigarette in sticks and forbids smoking in public places, will empower the government to recoup public funds spent on treating people who fall sick through using tobacco once it becomes law.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Group urges Senate to pass anti-tobacco bill
In a statement signed by the group’s Programme Manager, Mr. Yinka Olugbade, the group said the passage of the bill would help reduce tobacco-related deaths.
The group also commended Senator Olorunimbe Mamora for sponsoring the bill and working to ensure that it has passed the second reading.
“The Senate will be doing this nation a lot of good by passing this bill on time because the burden of cancer in Nigeria is appreciable and tobacco contributes a lot to this. According to the World Health Organisation, there are an estimated 100,000 new cancer cases in the country each year although observers believe the figure could become as high as 500,000 new cases annually by 2010.
“It is feared that by 2020, cancer incidence for Nigerian males and females may rise to 90.7/100,000 and 100.9/100,000 respectively. It is also anticipated that by 2020, death rates from cancer in Nigerian males and females may reach 72.7/100,000 and 76/100,000 respectively. But this only represents a tip of the iceberg if projections by the World Health Organization (WHO) are anything to go by.
“ In 2005 cancer killed eighty nine thousand people in Nigeria with fifty four thousand of this figure below the age of seventy. Essentially, the most common cancers documented in Nigeria to date are cancers of the uterus and breast for women and liver and prostate cancers for men. But many of these deaths can be avoided. Over 40% of all cancers can be prevented. Others can be detected early, treated and cured.
“With the passage of this bill, which will properly regulate tobacco use, cancer and other tobacco-related diseases are bound to be on the rebound,” the group noted.
Noting that a part of the bill contains incorporation of Pictorial warnings on the pack of cigarettes,JATH said,"There is no doubt that the sponsor of the Bill and the Nigerian Senate meant well for the welfare of its citizens.
"Incorporation of Pictorial Warning on tobacco product packets is important as majority of the tobacco users in this country will be able to have informed choice. World Health Organization (WHO), particularly approves of tobacco health warnings that contain both pictures and words because they are the most effective at convincing people to quit.