Femi Kuti - Why I Quit Smoking

You just mentioned that you neither drink nor smoke. Where do you get your kicks?

It is my work. Hard work.

But it may be difficult for people to believe you.

That is their business. I have smoked before and I don‘t deny it. But I have stopped. I stopped smoking for fifteen years. I did it again for two years and finally stopped. I started smoking after my mother died because I was very depressed. I have not done it for a couple of years now. Because of this same argument, I stopped. I don‘t need to smoke to become a great man. Even some people say that I don‘t smoke like my dad because I am not as strong as he was. I will not smoke.

Why the decision?

It is bad for my health. It gives me chest pains, but the main reason is on moral ground. It is because I address a serious and important subject that concerns justice and values and I don‘t want anybody to rubbish me by saying that I am a smoker or that I smoke Indian hemp. If I am fighting social ills and I continue to smoke, people will not take me seriously and I don‘t want that. Even if most members of my band smoke, I have to restrain myself just to combat issues. There are so many social ills that I am fighting against in my music and I cannot afford to allow myself to be embarrassed and dismissed as a hemp smoker.

SOURCE

15 cigarettes: all it takes to harm genes

-Steve Connor

Study reveals the genetic mutations suffered by smokers who go on to develop lung cancer

One genetic mutation occurs on average for every 15 cigarettes that a typical lung-cancer patient smokes, according to a study that has identified for the first time all of the mutations acquired during the lifetime of a cancer patient.

Scientists have completed a full genetic analysis of the genomes of cancer patients, and hope the information will lead to a fundamental understanding of the causes of cancer – and possibly drugs and treatments – by identifying the mutations that turn a healthy cell into a cancerous tumour cell.

They studied a lung-cancer victim who had built up about 23,000 DNA mutations in his lung cells that were linked with exposure to the toxins found in cigarette smoke and had accumulated over his lifetime.

They also looked at a patient with malignant melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, who had acquired 30,000 specific genetic mutations known to be associated with exposure to sunlight.

Scientists believe this new insight into the genetics of cancer will eventually lead to new drugs and tailor-made treatments that target the specific changes to the gene that help to trigger the disease, as well as new techniques for identifying secondary cancers that have evaded treatment in other parts of the body.

"For the first time, we have a comprehensive map of all mutations in a cancer cell," said Dr Peter Campbell of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, which led the Cancer Genome project to decipher the entire DNA sequence of tumour cells in order to identify the mutations.

"The profile of mutations we observed [in the lung-cancer patient] is exactly that expected from tobacco, suggesting that the majority of the 23,000 we found are caused by the cocktail of chemicals found in cigarettes. On the basis of average estimates, we can say that one mutation is fixed in the genome for every 15 cigarettes smoked," Dr Campbell said.

The study, published in the journal Nature, involved the sequencing of the entire genome of a lung-cancer cell 60 times in order to be sure that all of the smallest mutations were identified. The scientists then compared the genome sequence with that of a healthy cell taken from the same patient.

A similar procedure was performed on the cells of a patient with skin cancer, which is how the researchers were able to show that the malignant skin cells contained changes that resulted from exposure to ultraviolet light, said Professor Mike Stratton at the Sanger Institute.

"These are the two main cancers in the developed world for which we know the primary exposure. For lung cancer it is cigarette smoke, and for malignant melanoma it is exposure to sunlight," Professor Stratton said.

"With these genome sequences, we have been able to explore deep into the past of each tumour, uncovering with remarkable clarity the imprints of these environmental mutagens [mutation-causing agents] on DNA, which occurred years before the tumour became apparent," he said.

SOURCES 1, 2 ,3 , 4 , 5

Revolutionary case against tobacco use in Nigeria

-Alexander Chiejina

…Tobacco control bill yet to be passed by National Assembly Without a doubt, the health, economic, social, and environmental consequences of tobacco use in Nigeria and the continent are enormous.
Little wonder the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently revealed that African countries are experiencing a 4.3 percent annual increase in the rate of tobacco consumption. This has resulted in an upsurge of lung cancer and related cases which are now prevalent in the society.
It was against this background that experts, at a recent training for health reporters on cancer reporting organised by Journalists Advocacy on Tobacco and Health held recently at Ogba, Lagos urged that the trend should be checked.
Speaking at the event, Akinbode Oluwafemi, programme manager, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth (FoEN), noted that tobacco smoking is responsible for more than 85 percent of lung cancers. This, he explained, is because smoking-related cancer accounts for 30 percent of cancer-related deaths, adding that renowned journalists in the country like Steve Kadiri, Yinka Craig, Momoh Kubanji, Tina Onwudinwe and Beko Ransome Kuti lost their lives due to the health hazards associated with the consumption of cigarettes.
“Research findings have it that there are about 599 approved additives in a stick of cigarette. However, cigarette smoke has been proven to contain over 4000 toxic and cancer causing chemicals; carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, to name but a few,” Oluwafemi disclosed. According to him, cigarette advertising, promotion and sponsorship such as ‘Welcome to London, cool feeling’ have made cigarette smoking appealing to a lot of youths, without some of these tobacco companies apprising the public of dangers associated with smoking.
Lending his view, Tosin Orogun, programme manager, Communications and IT, Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI), declared that the rise in cigarette smoking in the society is traceable to tobacco companies which increasingly target the developing world as barriers rise and smoking rates fall in more mature markets. “What we (ATCRI) have been trying to do is to facilitate the adoption, implementation and enforcement of effective in-country tobacco control policies, legislation and programs in Nigeria and across the continent,”
Orogun revealed. Already, a 2009 report on the implementation of smoke-free environments aimed at combating Global Tobacco Epidemic shows that five more countries (Djibouti, Egypt, Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia and Mauritius) meet the best practices for health warnings on cigarette packages. Three other countries (Israel, Romania and the United Arab Emirates), meanwhile, offer comprehensive help in the drive to eradicate tobacco consumption. In the same vein, only Panama has joined the small group of countries that ban all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, even as more than 90 percent of people lack protection from tobacco industry marketing. Six more countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, the Netherlands and Seychelles) have levied tobacco taxes higher than 75 percent of retail price.
Lastly, of the world’s 100 most populous cities, 22 are smoke-free. Sadly, though, reports from the recently concluded media summit hosted by the American Cancer Society ahead of the AORTIC cancer in Africa, stated that 55 percent of school students are not aware that secondhand smoke is harmful to health, and only 1 percent of Nigeria’s population are protected by strong smoke-free laws. This lays bare the fact that if nothing is done to hastily check public smoking in the country, the rising figures of cancer and other non-communicable diseases may remain.
The bill to ban cigarette smoking in public places which had its public hearing before the National Assembly 19 July this year should quickly be passed into law. A part of the bill which seeks to protect people from secondhand smoke, raise taxes on tobacco, enforce a level of ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship would in the long run, save Nigerians from self- inducing cancer types.

TOBACCO SMOKING - a sure way to contract LUNG CANCER

African Lawyers Meet in Nairobi to Build Alliance for Tobacco Control Legislations

Today, a Legal Workshop for Tobacco Control Lawyers in Africa opens in Nairobi, Kenya with over 50 lawyers from over 32 countries present. The workshop, which is jointly organized by the International Legal Consortium at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) and the Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) is providing the platform for discussing common concerns and issues related to tobacco control in Africa, sharing information on effective tobacco control legislation in Africa and shaping the goals, objectives and activities of the Lawyers network.

Deliberations at the meeting will be around the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which is the first global public health treaty negotiated under the auspecies of the World Health Organization for the regulation of tobacco product manufacturing, sales and promotion. The FCTC currently has 167 countries of which Africa has 40, who are parties and are obliged to fulfill the provisions of the convention.

Providing a comprehensive overview of tobacco control legislation and the FCTC, Patricia Lambert a South African, who works with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) in Washington, DC noted that “Africans played a major role in the negotiations for the FCTC. It is an African document. Now is the time to translate the powerful words of the FCTC into concrete actions in every African country” “

African lawyers must be prepared for litigation with full consciousness that the tobacco companies are not lying-down. There is no need to be afraid as the FCTC has provided the guides for ensuring successful implementation of a smoke-free Africa” says Rachel Kitonyo, Chairperson of the Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA).

According to Mr. Adeola Akinremi, FCA Africa Coordinator, “This workshop is coming at the very right time for Africa bringing together lawyers at this critical time that many countries on the continent are reviewing their tobacco control legislation”

According to the WHO, “African countries are experiencing the highest increase in the rate of tobacco use amongst developing countries. In the African region tobacco consumption is increasing by 4.3 percent per year.” This development is driven in part by the tobacco industry, which increasingly targets the developing world as barriers rise and smoking rates fall in more “mature” markets around the world.

Globally, tobacco use causes one in ten deaths among adults worldwide – more than five million people a year. Unless urgent action is taken, tobacco will kill 8 million people a year by 2030, 80 percent of them in developing countries.

Countries represented at the meeting include Mauritius, Nigeria, Zambia, Burkina-faso, Lesotho, Swaziland, Kenya, Ghana, DR Congo, Gabon, Senegal, South Africa, Cameroon and Togo. Others include Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, Madagascar, Niger, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Cote d’ Ivoire, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Benin, The Gambia, United States and Canada.

The Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI) promotes the adoption, implementation and enforcement of effective in-country tobacco control policies, legislation and programmes across the African continent by providing the platform for information sharing, institutional support and capacity building among all tobacco-control stakeholders.