Battling tobacco trading

• ERA/FoEN wants tobacco bill signed

THE National Tobacco Control Bill, passed by the Senate on March 15, 2011, and concurred by the Lower House on May 31, 2011 (World No Tobacco Day), which in July, 2009, had its   public hearing conducted by the senate and attracted more than 40 civil society groups, including groups from the tobacco industry who were against the bill; still awaits the assent of the president. However, the bill takes a forefront in improving the health of the general public. The bill which repeals the Tobacco (Control) Act 1990 CAP. T16 Laws of the Federation is aimed at domesticating the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The keys highlights of the bill are prohibition of smoking in public places; to include restaurant and bar, public transportation, schools, hospitals etc. A ban on all forms of direct and indirect advertising, prohibition of sales of cigarette 1000-meter radius of areas designated as non-smoking, mass awareness about the danger of smoking as well as the formation of committee that will guide government on the issue of tobacco control in the country.

It prohibits all forms of tobacco advertisement, sponsorships and promotions, endorsements or testimonials, sales promotions. Prohibition of the sale of tobacco products 1,000 meter radius places designated as non smoking and empowers government to use litigation to recoup liabilities related to tobacco consumption. 

Spreading Tobacco scourge

Even as tobacco death toll soars beyond 6 million, big tobacco industries have stepped up its efforts to prevent tobacco control laws from taking effect. Highly visible examples include lawsuits by Phillip Morris International and its competitors against countries like Austrialia, Norway and Uruguay for implementing strong tobacco control laws.

“Big Tobacco is very publicly bullying countries in hopes they will cave, their neighbours will cave, and treaty implementation will cave,” said Kelle Louaillier, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability International.

World Health Assembly resolution on transparency in tobacco control process, citing the findings of the Committee of Experts on Tobacco Industry Documents, states that “the tobacco industry has operated for years with the express intention of subverting the role of governments and WHO in implementing public health policies to combat the tobacco epidemic.”

For example, in an attempt to halt the adoption of pictorial health warnings on packages of tobacco, the industry recently adopted the novel tactic of suing countries under bilateral investment treaties, claiming that the warnings impinge the companies' attempts to use their legally-registered brands.

Meanwhile, the industry's attempts to undermine the treaty continue on other fronts, particularly with regard to countries' attempts to ban smoking in enclosed public places and to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.  Tobacco advertising and promotions are everywhere. 

Despite the ban on smoking in public places, there are still promotions of cigarette smoking in clubs, parties, rural areas and sharing of gifts.  

For instance, the British American Tobacco of Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) aimed at  improving the quality of life of citizens in rural and urban areas of Nigeria through sustainable poverty alleviation, agricultural development,  potable water, environmental protection and vocational skills acquisition  are ways to get into the heart of the masses which will inturn promote cigarette smoking. 

BAT is also involved with sport sponsoring, especially football which is popular in Nigeria. FIFA's decision to prohibit tobacco ads in sports grounds and on the players shirts was only for the World cup. 

However, an odd thing is the simultaneous presence of advertising for Marlboro while nobody holds a distributing license for Marlboro in Nigeria.   

The Environment Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) states that Tobacco industry interference is to weaken law to ensure they never get enacted and to undermine those laws.

“Even though the law didn't specify the public places but they have been moving around to kiosks, hotels, advertise with sharing umbrellas, commissioning of borehole. Tobacco company should be held responsible for both the environmental, economic, health and social cost,” said Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, Director, Corporate Accountability and Administration.

He referred to the Tobacco companies humanitarian gestures as being against the health of the ublic. “These gestures are not strictly humanitarian gestures; most companies act for the benefit of mankind but Tobacco Company is acting against the benefit of mankind.”

He also revealed that, “Tobacco companies don't pay taxes, they actually rake the taxes from smokers. So, when they pay N1billion tax,  it means that they have sold close toN100 billion cigarettes.”

Director, People against Drug Dependence and Ignorance, Mr.Eze Eluchie adds “One of BAT's most recent and successful promotion is named Experience Hollywood: they organize film showings and with your ticket you are given a pack of cigarettes. I tried to attend one  such event with a camera but they refused to let me in with the camera.” 

Health threats

Tobacco use most commonly leads to diseases affecting the heart, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attacks, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), emphysema, and cancer, particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer. Overall life expectancy is also reduced in regular smokers, with estimates ranging from 10_17.9 years fewer than nonsmokers.

Eluchi said 13,700 people die as a result of cigarette having 35% aid of cancer and approximately 5 million people die of cigarette everyday.

Statistics

The global tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of which more than 600,000 are people exposed to second-hand smoke and may kill up to 8 million people by 2030 if nothing drastic is done, of which more than 80per cent live in low- and middle-income countries.

Among male smokers, the lifetime risk of developing lung cancer is 17.2per cent; among female smokers, the risk is 11.6per cent. This risk is significantly lower in nonsmokers: 1.3per cent in men and 1.4per cent in women. 

Recommendations

The WHO/FCTC on tobacco control is to raise awareness about the addictives and harmful nature of tobacco products and industry interference with Parties' tobacco policies. Establish measures to limit interactions with the tobacco products and transparency of those interactions that occur and require information provided by the tobacco industry be transparent and accurate.

Oluwafemi urged prioritizing the health of the people above the commercial investment interests of the tobacco industry. “We want the presidency to hearken to the call from the global and local communities. He has the window of signing because the constitution is clear. The world is watching. We've not confirmed from the president if he has received the bill and no information yet if he is not going to sign for public health, nothing is too much.”

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Women losing the battle against tobacco use

By Ben Ukwuoma

AS the world marks this year’s World No Tobacco Day, the evidence of tobacco use among young females is increasing in many countries and regions. This has reopened the call for governments to ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and to eliminate tobacco smoking in all public and work places as provided in the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. PETRESE is not only pretty, she is intelligent, too. She is also from a family that is comfortable. That gave her an early expose to many good and bad things in life. One of the bad things she herself admits to nowadays is smoking.

At 24, she has double Master’s degrees. She drinks strong alcohol like fish drinks water. And she lights another stick of cigarette before she snuffs off an earlier one. Since the last two odd years, she intermittently coughs and no medication has been able to cure it. Just last week, a comprehensive medical check on her lungs revealed large dark spots. Her physician last week broke the news of an affliction of cancer of the lungs to her heart-broken parents. Petrese is on the fast lane to early death.

But she is not alone. There are many, old and young, men and women, illiterate and elites who are hooked on excessive use of tobacco. Medically, it has been confirmed that of the over five million people who die each year from tobacco use, approximately 1.5 million are women.

Unless urgent action is taken, experts say that tobacco use could kill more than eight million people by 2030, of whom 2.5 million would be women.

Approximately, three-quarters of these female deaths would occur in the low-income and middle-income countries that are least able to absorb such losses. Every one of these premature deaths would have been avoidable.In some countries, the bigger threat to women is from exposure to the smoke of others, particularly men. Isidore S. Obot of the Department of General and Applied Psychology, University of Jos, Plateau State, carried out a study on the incidence of cigarette smoking, cigar/pipe tobacco and snuff use in the Nigerian population. In a sample of 1,271 adult heads of household (1,137 males, 134 females), the overall prevalence of regular smoking was 22.6 per cent. The proportions of regular cigar/pipe tobacco and snuff users were 17.9 per cent and 9.6 per cent. Among cigarette smokers, 60.6 per cent smoked at least half a pack a day, 11.2 per cent at least one pack a day. Males smoked more than females. The poor, uneducated respondents smoked more than the relatively rich and educated. Smoking was more rampant in the third decade of life than in other age groups. Smokers had a higher incidence of health problems and both nonsmokers and heavy smokers were less aware of the risk of smoking than light smokers. In the light of the above, it is suggested that health education should be a major component of tobacco and health policy in Nigeria. The harmful health effects of smoking cigarettes presented below only begin to convey the longterm side effects of smoking. Quitting makes sense for many reasons but simply put: Smoking is bad for health.Worldwide, of the approximately 430,000 adult deaths caused every year by second-hand smoke, about 64 per cent occur in women.

On World No Tobacco Day 2010 today, focus is on the harm which tobacco marketing and smoke do to women. At the same time, it seeks to make men more aware of their responsibility to avoid smoking around the women with whom they live and work.

Women, and men, must be protected from tobacco industry marketing and smoke, as stated in the preamble to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. In effect since 2005, this international treaty acknowledges "the increase in smoking and other forms of tobacco consumption by women and young girls worldwide" and explicitly recognises "the need for gender-specific tobacco control strategies".

Unfortunately, less than nine per cent of the world's population is covered by comprehensive advertising bans. Only 5.4 per cent is covered by comprehensive national smoke-free laws.The rising epidemic of tobacco use among women has forced the WHO to issue an alert, calling countries to protect women and girls against the sickness and suffering caused by tobacco use. In half of the 151 countries recently surveyed for trends in tobacco use among young people, approximately as many girls used tobacco as boys. More girls used tobacco than boys in some of the countries, including Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cook Islands, Croatia, Czech Republic, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria and Uruguay.WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan says: "Tobacco use is neither liberating nor glamorous. It is addictive and deadly."

This year’s 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.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.

"We know that tobacco advertising increasingly targets girls," said WHO Assistant Director-General for Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health, Dr. Ala Alwan. "This campaign calls attention to the tobacco industry's attempts to market its deadly products by associating tobacco use with beauty and liberation."

Often the threat to women is less from their being enticed to smoke or chew tobacco than from their being exposed to the smoke of others, particularly men.

"By enforcing the WHO Framework Convention, governments can reduce the toll of fatal and crippling heart attacks, strokes, cancers and respiratory diseases that have become increasingly prevalent among women," says Dr. Douglas Bettcher, Director of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative.

WHO calls on governments and the public to demand a ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; to support implementation and strong enforcement of legislation to provide 100 per cent protection from tobacco smoke in all public and work places; and to take global action to advocate for women's freedom from tobacco. The health hazards of smoking are well documented, and prevention of smoking has been described as the single greatest opportunity for preventing non-communicable disease in the world today.Cigarette smoking during pregnancy is said to increase the risk of low birth weight, prematurity, spontaneous abortion, reduction in breast milk and perinatal mortality in humans, which has been referred to as the fetal tobacco syndrome. Smoking increases women's risk for cancer of the cervix. There is a possible link between active smoking and premenopausal breast cancer.

The health effects of tobacco are the circumstances, mechanisms, and factors of tobacco consumption on human health. Epidemiological research has been focused primarily on tobacco smoking, which has been studied more extensively than any other form of consumption.

Tobacco use leads most commonly to diseases affecting the heart and lungs, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer). It also causes peripheral vascular disease and hypertension, all developed due to the exposure time and the level of dosage of tobacco. Furthermore, the earlier and the higher level of tar content in the tobacco-filled cigarettes cause the greater risk of these diseases.

Cigarettes sold in developing nations are said to have higher tar content, and are less likely to be filtered, potentially increasing vulnerability to tobacco-related disease in these regions.Smoke contains several carcinogenic pyrolytic products that bind to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and cause many genetic mutations. There are over 19 known chemical carcinogens in cigarette smoke. Tobacco also contains nicotine, which is a highly addictive psychoactive chemical.

When tobacco is smoked, nicotine causes physical and psychological dependency. Tobacco use is also a significant factor in miscarriages among pregnant smokers. It contributes to a number of other threats to the health of the foetus such as premature births and low birth weight and increases by 1.4 to three times the chance for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The result of scientific studies done in neonatal rats seems to indicate that exposure to cigarette smoke in the womb may reduce the foetal brain's ability to recognise hypoxic conditions, thus increasing the chance of accidental asphyxiation.

Incidence of impotence is approximately 85 per cent higher in male smokers compared to non-smokers, and it is a key cause of erectile dysfunction (ED).

Generally, women's reasons for smoking often differ from men's. The tobacco industry cons many women into believing that smoking is a sign of liberation, and many women wrongly view smoking as a good way of keeping slim.Controlling the epidemic of tobacco among women is an important part of any tobacco control strategy. As Mrs. Chan said: "Protecting and promoting the health of women is crucial to health and development – not only for the citizens of today but also for those of future generation. In many countries, vastly more men smoke than women, and many of those countries fail to protect nonsmokers adequately”.

In many countries, women are powerless to protect themselves, and their children, from second-hand smoke.

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