By Kemo Cham
The Sierra Leone government must act fast and tough in its fight against tobacco consumption in the country, an anti-tobacco expert has warned.
Andrew Black, a World Health Organization (WHO) anti-tobacco control official, said tobacco use among particularly children is growing at a “worrying trend” that requires not just a tougher anti-tobacco law but also one that strongly counters the growing influence of tobacco advertising and promotion.
“We know that tobacco is popular with young people – 11 to 15 years old. We have data on that, and we are seeing very worrying trends that tobacco is becoming more and more popular, especially among young girls,” Black, who is Team Lead for Development Assistance at the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, told Politico.
Tobacco is manufactured from the tobacco plant and it contains the addictive stimulant Nicotine. Tobacco products contain toxic chemicals which are harmful to users. These chemicals account for many leading causes of preventable deaths from Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), like heart attacks, stroke and various lung diseases, are attributed to tobacco use.
According to the WHO, an estimated eight million people die of tobacco related illnesses annually across the world.
According to the Global Youth Tobacco Survey conducted in 2008, the most recent report available on the rate of tobacco consumption in Sierra Leone, 23.3 percent of youths in the country are smokers. That survey revealed that there is an almost equal number of boys and girls who smoke.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is an international treaty that has the objective of ending the global tobacco epidemic and it serves as a guide for member countries to implement several measures, among them strengthening of tobacco control legislations and prohibition of tobacco advertisement and promotion.
Sierra Leone is one of a few countries which have no tobacco control law, despite being signatory to the FCTC for over 10 years. But over the last three years, efforts to accelerate the country’s tobacco control regime have been heightened.
In 2017, the government was selected by the WHOFCTC Secretariat among 15 Lower and Middle Income countries which are being provided with technical and financial support to implement the FCTC treaty, under a project called FCTC 2030 Project.
Last week a major step in this effort was reached with the publication of a report detailing the impact of tobacco use on the country both in terms of the economic cost and human lives lost.
The ‘Investment Case for Tobacco Control’ for Sierra Leone shows that the country is losing Le403.9 billion annually, an amount equivalent to 1.5 percent of its GDP. It also shows that 3, 300 people are dying annually due to tobacco related illnesses in the country.
The report calls for a multi-sectoral engagement for effective tobacco control. It notably proffers three top recommendations that include increasing tobacco taxes, establishing an effective tobacco control law, and banning of advertisement of tobacco products.
Black, who is the Team Lead for Development Assistance in the WHO FCTC Secretariat, was at the head of a team of three experts who flew into the country for the launch of the report.
He told Politico that a major focus of any anti-tobacco regime must prioritize protection of children from tobacco use, noting that most tobacco users start when they are still children and become addicted to it before they become adult.
“All around the world we have seen the tobacco industry targeting children because that’s who they want to have as customers, to replace the people who are dying from tobacco related diseases at the other end. They need to continue to get people into their market and so young people, children, are ideal customers for the tobacco industry,” he said in an interview.
“That’s why we need to remove influences like tobacco advertising,” he added.
Published in print on 4 July 2019
© 2019 Politico Online
