Gambia: Freeing the Gambia From Tobacco

Source from:  The Daily Observer (Banjul) 3 September 2007 09/05/2007

New thinking is the hallmark of our age. And the threats of tobacco smoking and the burden it superimposes on our health requires a string of reforms to revert the trend. According to statistics from the African Network for Information and Action Against Drugs and Substance Abuse (RAID) The Gambia, 25,000 Gambians have died of tobacco, with young people constituting the highest percentage. The WHO statistics indicate that at least 5 million people die of tobacco and its related substances each year. The use of tobacco is the leading preventable killer in most countries, including The Gambia. And deaths from tobacco related cancers: lungs, throat, or bladder cancer is 10 to 15% higher. Unfortunately, even with the best treatment available today, nine out of ten lung cancers are fatal. Despite several warnings that smoking is dangerous to health, cancer has remained a serious problem, devastating precious lives because of our inability to launch an all-out national approach in the context of new reforms to put a definite end to it. Although, the number of cancers seen each year is slightly above average for an old industrial urban state, the death rate from cancer is well above the national average. We know that the nicotine in tobacco is an addictive drug. We now face an epidemic of youthful nicotine addiction with many of them regular smokers. For the first time in decades, we have seen an increased in the use of tobacco in school campus and in the ghettos. We cannot escape the facts. The cost in health care, lost wages, not to mention the personal tragedies, are horrendous. Nine out of ten lung cancers occur in people who smoke cigarettes or cigars. About half of throat cancer and mouth cancer occur in smokers and almost all particularly aggressive mouth cancers occur in people who chew tobacco. Bladder cancer is also associated with tobacco use and other cancers have been implicated. Tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable cancers. We need enhanced efforts to prevent the continuation of the nicotine addiction epidemic in youngsters. For example, the bold initiative undertaken by the Medical Research Council to make their premises no-smoke area, is indeed commendable. Also, the President's move to make public places no-smoking area is a welcome step. We cannot shirk our responsibilities now that the irrefutable facts are before us, when resources could be available to develop a meaningful programme for tobacco control. The emergence of the new WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco is a welcome development. The urgency at which the Department of State for Health and Social Welfare acted on it and its swift ratification by the National Assembly is indeed laudable, considering the explosive consequences of tobacco in the country. Even non-smokers are not immune to the devastation of tobacco, as scientific evidence supporting this reality is in abundance. Now that a national consultation on this 193-member state evidence-based convention is ongoing, we owe it to ourselves and our children to dispose our energies and wisdom for the successful implementation of the treaty. The convention present a holistic approach to eradicate tobacco in society, thereby filling the gaps in the Public Smoking Act. We must continue to act with diligence and consistency. Enditem