Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
According to National Library of Medicine, a stick of cigarette shortens the life of the smoker by 11 minutes.
This was disclosed by the Programme Manager of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Mr Okeke Anya, during a seminar on using taxation to control tobacco consumption held in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
Anya who advocated a hike in taxation on tobacco as a measure for effective control of tobacco consumption, urged Government to consider such a measure.
Anya who noted that tobacco is harmful said that “even herbivorous animals don’t eat tobacco leaves.”
Decrying the harmful effects of tobacco he said, “the true face of tobacco is disease, horror and death,” adding that “cigarette smoking is the chief single cause of avoidable death across the globe.”
“Tobacco kills up to half of the population of its users,” he warned.
He further said that out of the 8 million smokers who die of tobacco annually, 1.2 million of them are second hand smokers (people who are exposed to inhalation of cigarette smoke).
According to him 80% of the deaths occur among low income earners who usually lack the needed economic support to manage tobacco-induced diseases.
He disclosed that a recent study estimated that tobacco would kill up to 1 billion people in this century if no urgent measures were taken to control its consumption.
“Tobacco harms nearly every organ in the body, and reduces the smoker’s overall health and lifespan,” he regretted.
He advised parents and guardians to watch out for the novel forms of cigarette smoking like ‘shisha,’ and e-cigarettes.
According to him, a session of shisha is equivalent to 100 sticks of cigarette, warning that harmful components of shisha pose serious health hazards to smokers.
He noted that cigarette contains about 7000 chemicals capable of causing cancer, and some harmful particles such as rat poison, acetic acid, cadmium used in battery production, tar, etc. Anya noted that tobacco taxes could not only be used by Government to shore up revenues but could also serve as a an effective public health intervention to shrink tobacco consumption.
He argued that when prices of tobacco are jacked up as a result of increase in taxation, majority of smokers especially among low income earners would stay away from the product.
In a remark, the Executive Director, Initiative for Ideal Development And Emancipatory Leadership in Nigeria, IDEAL-NIGERIA, Pastor Innocent Nwokocha, said that increase in the price of cigarette as a result of hike in taxation would lead to a sharp drop in the number of smokers particularly among the low class.
Participants at the seminar regretted that Government had abdicated its responsibility of dissemination of adequate information on the dangers of cigarette to NGOs.
They also suggested that regional and sub regional Governments should impose tax policies that would make it compulsory for cigarette sellers to obtain licenses as a way to raise government revenue.
