Nigeria: How to Make Smoke-Free Law Work in Nigeria

Source from:  Daily Independent 12/15/2014

There is no doubt that Nigeria got it right with the way the Ministry of Health swung into action to nip the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) imported into the country through the late Liberian Patrick Sawyer.

So efficient was the way the spread of the virus was controlled, that Nigeria was hugely commended by the United Nations Secretary General, and the World Health Organisation at the UN General Assembly in New York after the country was declared free of the deadly ebola virus on Monday 20 October 2014.

The success of the curtailment of the EVD was made possible by the deployment of thousands of health officials and volunteers to track and trace potential victims along with the medical care that victims in the quarantine centers received. To complement the work of the Ministry of Health, awareness and education on the dangers of the virus was publically disseminated in the public space. All hands, as it were, were on deck.

Nigeria's success in clipping the EVD reverberated across the globe, reinforcing the conviction of many well-meaning citizens that with commitment, determination, and a concerted multi-sectoral action, this nation can make a positive mark in the global scene. It is on the premise of the success of the EVD campaign that public health experts feel that the Health Ministry can also use the same concerted multi-sectoral action to tackle the tobacco menace, a lethal killer that is responsible for thousands of deaths in Nigeria every year.

Nigeria has lost great musicians, journalists, and experts from all walks of life to the tobacco menace which the World Health Organisation (WHO) says kills nearly 6 million people globally each year. A large chunk of this number is said to be in Nigeria and other African countries, where there are weak regulations exploited by tobacco transnational companies to market death, wrapped in beautiful cigarette packs, to the youth and ill-informed.

Research has long shown that second-hand smoke is one of the lead causes of some of the serious ailments and premature deaths caused by tobacco. According to the WHO, each year, exposure to second-hand smoke leads to over 600,000 premature deaths across the globe. SHS, the acronym for second-hand smoke, is a mix of smoke emanating from the burning of a tobacco product which is inhaled by a non-smoker. The inhaler assimilates a cocktail of more than 7,000 chemicals, hundreds of which are toxic and about 70 are known to cause cancer.

New statistics show that 33 percent of non-smoking males, 35 percent of non- smoking females, and 40 percent of children are exposed to SHS with over 165,000 children dying every year from hitherto minor ailments such as middle ear infection and lower respiratory infections.

While there have been pockets of initiatives either by the Federal or State Governments aimed at protecting public places from second-hand smoke, there has never been a comprehensive legislation to safeguard the health of non-smokers that form the majority of the population. For instance, the Tobacco Smoking (Control) Act of 1990 which outlawed smoking in some public places, only listed cinemas, theater or stadium, offices, public transportation, lifts, medical establishments, schools and nursery institutions as public places.

The non-comprehensive nature of previous efforts opened the loophole for tobacco companies' manipulation which has given birth to Designated Smoking Areas (DSAs). Because of the loopholes, previous legislations did not make the desired impact in curbing tobacco-related deaths. A survey carried out in 11 public hospitals in Lagos in 2006 was indeed revealing. The survey showed that at the time it was carried out, there were 9,527 tobacco-related cases in 11 out of 26 public hospitals.

The results also showed how close the dangers of tobacco smoke is to non-smokers who not only suffer the consequences of second-hand smoke inhalation, but also carry the associated costs of nursing sick dependents.

The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) for Nigeria released by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in 2013 shows that 29.3 percent of adults (6.4 million adults) in the country were exposed to tobacco smoke when visiting restaurants. Enditem