Ghana Launches World No Tobacco Day

Source from:  News Ghana 06/02/2016

The national launch of the World No Tobacco Day was organised by Vision for Alternative Development (VALD), an Accra based ngo, in collaboration with the Ashanti Regional chapter of the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health.

World No Tobacco Day, which falls on the 31 of May every year, is aimed at further creating awareness to educate the general public about the health effects of the consumption of tobacco products such as cigarette.

This year's launch at the Teachers' Hall in Kumasi was witnessed by students from selected second cycle institutions in the metropolis, members of the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health, health professionals, educationists, and the media.

In his welcome address, the Ashanti Regional chairman of the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health, Mr. Christopher Dapaah, said it is high time the health risks associated with tobacco consumption is brought to the attention of the public.

He said concrete steps must also be taken to find lasting solutions to eliminate or reduce the consumption of tobacco related products such as cigarette.

He called on all civil society organisation (CSOs) undertaking interventions in the health sector to join forces to mount effective campaign to educate the public to abstain from smoking cigarette and the use of other forms of tobacco.

Mr. Dapaah, who is also the Country Director of Resource Link Foundation, Ghana, appealed to all state institutions to take steps to implement all legal requirements with regards to the packaging and marketing of tobacco products to protect the public.

The Programmes Director of Vision for Alternative Development, Mr. Labram Musah, consumption of tobacco, which is the leading cause of death globally,causes "destruction and poverty".

He said several countries such as Ireland and Australia have taken the bold steps to control tobacco consumption by implementing pictorial warnings on packages of tobacco products.

The use of pictorial warnings is particularly useful to countries with low literacy levels such as Ghana and other developing countries.

He said that Ghana cannot continue to implement only text warnings on the packages of cigarette in the face of multiplicity of languages, most of which are not taught in schools.

Mr. Musah said African countries such as Burkina Faso, Chad, Egypt, Namibia, Madagascar, Djibouti and Mauritius have implemented pictorial warnings and Ghana must also do same to create awareness.

The Deputy Director of Disease Control Department of the Ghana Health service, Dr KyeiFaried, explained that plain packaging will replace the names of tobacco companies on cigarette packs.
According to him pictures depicting the harm tobacco consumption have wreaked on the human body will rather be visible on the tobacco packs to serve as warning signs to consumers.

He mentioned that available statistics indicate that about 7.5% of the population consume tobacco with the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions having the highest number of tobacco consumers.
Dr Kyei said that the way forward is to enforce legislations to control the wanton marketing and consumption of tobacco products, whiles also learning from the best practices in other parts of the world by implementing pictorial warnings.

The Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Alexis Nang-Beifubah, who launched the 2016 WNTD, advised the youth to shun the use of any tobacco related product to protect their future.
He appealed to the students to become ambassadors of change by spreading the no tobacco message to their colleagues and friends at home.

He said that all forms of enticing advertisements about tobacco products must be stopped. He therefore urged the media to further aid in creating awareness about the dangers of tobacco consumption to make Ghana a tobacco free country.

In an interview, the Executive Director of Network for Health and Relief Foundation, Mr. Samuel Oracca-Tetteh, said the effects of the consumption of tobacco has been so clear and Ghana cannot waste any more time in delaying the implementation of pictorial warnings on the packages of tobacco products.

He called on policy makers to take the bold step to implement pictorial warning to discourage current consumers of tobacco products from continuing and to also discourage first time users from even thinking of starting to use tobacco. Enditem