Zambia: Stiffen Laws on Tobacco Use, State urged

Source from:  Zambia Daily Mail‎ 04/08/2015

The Zambia Heart and Stroke Foundation (ZAHESFO) has called on Government to stiffen laws on tobacco use to curb heart diseases that will annually claim eight million people globally by 2030.

Tobacco use is estimated to be currently killing six million people a year, one of the leading risk factors for cardiovascular disease accounting for 10 percent of cardiovascular mortality globally.

ZAHESFO founder Brenda Chitindi, who is also Tobacco – Free Association of Zambia executive director, said the country risks losing its citizens to avoidable cardiovascular diseases between now and 2030 if tobacco use is not regulated.

Ms Chitindi said in a statement yesterday that the World Heart Federation launched the cardiovascular disease Roadmap on Tobacco Control at the World Conference on Tobacco in Abu Dhabi held last month.

ZAHESFO is the national member of the World Heart Association, which is party to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) treaty.

"The roadmap indicates that if world governments do not speed up their work to reduce tobacco use, it will be difficult to control the growing epidemic of cardiovascular diseases where by 2030, tobacco will claim eight million lives each year. Action must be taken now to stop it," Ms Chitindi said.

She said the roadmap on tobacco control calls on countries to develop policies that protect people from death and disability from cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and hypertension.

Ms Chitindi said the roadmap on tobacco control is based on the global tobacco control treaty, WHO-FCTC.

She said through the treaty, countries like Zambia are already legally bound to draft and enforce policies that protect people from death and illness caused by tobacco use.

She said these include raising tobacco taxes, enforcing bans on smoking in public places and tobacco advertising, warning the public of the dangers of tobacco, and providing support for quitting the substance.

She said the roadmap is designed to mobilise all stakeholders in improving heart health or reducing economic losses caused by cardiovascular diseases.

"It further indicates clear routes of action for reducing death and disability from heart disease caused by tobacco, and calls upon different groups to coordinate action to accelerate the implementation of tobacco control policy," Ms Chitindi said.

She urged Government to urgently implement the WHO-FCT treaty to save the lives of Zambians from the ills of tobacco use. Enditem