It may sound odd, but the
World Health Organisation says
more girls than boys smoke
tobacco; giving new reasons
why the anti-tobacco crusade
must now address the
womenfolk.
When on Friday, WHO called for
a special protection of women
and girls against tobacco, it was
not as if the organisation had
assumed the other members of
the society needed not to be
shielded from the harmful
effects of what is perceived
globally to be an addictive
consumption.
It was because global
researches have indicated a
growing, worrisome trend in
the habit of women and girls
who take tobacco as a thing of
glamour and status. WHO ’s new
direction of campaign is to
press home the focus of this
year ’s World Tobacco Day.
WHO’s Director-General, Dr.
Margaret Chan, said, “The trends
in some countries are
extremely worrisome,” adding,
“Tobacco use is neither
liberating nor glamorous. It is
addictive and deadly. ”
This 2010 campaign theme,
“ Gender and tobacco with an
emphasis on marketing to
women, focuses on the harmful
effects of tobacco marketing
towards women and girls. It
also highlights the need for
governments to ban all tobacco
advertising, promotion and
sponsorship and to eliminate
tobacco smoke in all public and
work places as provided in the
WHO Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control, ” according to
the global health body.
Nigeria, where the campaign
against smoking has been
gaining ground through the
efforts of the Environmental
Rights Action, is ranked among
countries which WHO Director-
General said the trend is pretty
worrisome.
Smoking may be one habit that
is generally perceived to be rife
among males, but a recent
survey, according to WHO,
shows that there is a growing
rate of tobacco use amongst
girls and women. Women and
girls are said to represent 20
per cent global smoking
population.
“In half of the 151 countries
recently surveyed for trends in
tobacco use among young
people, approximately as many
girls uses tobacco as boys. More
girls use tobacco than boys in
some of the countries, including
Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cook
Islands, Croatia, Czech Republic,
Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria
and Uruguay.
“Women are a major target for
the tobacco industry in its
effort to recruit new users to
replace those who will quit or
die prematurely from tobacco-
related diseases. The leading
preventable cause of death,
tobacco use kills more than five
million people every year,
about 1.5 million of whom are
women, ” says WHO on Friday.
And what is the nexus between
tobacco and women? Or better
still; what is the attraction?
After strategic manners in
which the anti-smoking
campaigners across the world
had tackled the recruitment of
youths into smoking by
tobacco manufacturers and
marketers, there is said to be a
new path manufacturers and
marketers are following to
force smoke down the throats
of women. By linking smoking
with beauty, young girls are
easily fascinated and are
consequently recruited into the
habit.
Analysts are of the view that
the same method employed in
using the media to present slim
girls as paragon of African
beauty is being promoted to
make young girls believe that
their beauty is incomplete
without tobacco addiction.
But it is not only those who
engage in the practical habit of
direct smoking that are
considered to be smokers.
Passive smokers abount
through their inhaling of
smokes in public places.
The inclusion of Nigeria
amongst countries considered
to be having a disturbing rate
of smoking girls further
reinforces the points being
raised by Nigerian crusaders
that the government needs to
act fast before tobacco-related
diseases add to its alleged
unenviable record in health
management.
Programme Manager of the
Environmental Rights in
Nigeria, an affiliate of the
Friends of the Earth, Mr.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, said the
focus on the need to save
women and girls from smoking,
which is the theme of this
year ’s tobacco day, should
compel some persons in high
places to act fast.
“It will interest you that the
chairman of the Senate
Committee on Health, Senator
Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, is a
woman. And we believe that
where the interests of women
are concerned, a woman in the
status of the senator should use
her position to ensure the
welfare of her fellow
womenfolk, ” say Oluwafemi.
His call is on the strength of a
bill which was said to have
been presented to the Senate by
a member, Senator
Olorunnimbe Mamora which,
according to him, is yet to be
passed into law.
Among other things, the bill
seeks to ban smoking in public
and end all forms of promotion
of the product in the country.
Mamora, who spoke with our
correspondent on Sunday, said
there had been deliberate
moves to scuttle the bill at the
National Assembly, adding that
some of his colleagues who
swore to defend the wellbeing
of Nigerians were engaging in
acts that are inconsistent with
their oath of office.
Mamora said, “No amount of
propaganda; no amount of
purported job creation by the
British American Tobacco can
justify the number of lives
being destroyed through the
use of tobacco. This is because
certain incontrovertible
evidence have been established
linking tobacco use to various
diseases. ”
In a separate statement on the
2010 World Tobacco Day,
Oluwafemi called for the
passing into law of the bill as a
sign of government ’s readiness
to recognise the global concern
for the health of its citizenry.
He stated, “It is a fact that
dangers are associated with
smoking. The World Health
Organisation estimated that 5.4
million people die every year
due to tobacco-related diseases,
with majority of these deaths
happening in developing
countries.
“Tobacco is the only consumer
product that is guaranteed to
kill half its consumers if used
according to manufacturers ’
intention. It contains more than
4,000 dangerous chemicals
harmful to the body.
“It is also a fact that stringent
measures aimed at reducing
smoking in Europe and America
have driven the tobacco
industry to developing
countries like Nigeria, where
the industry continues to flout
regulations, marketing to
young and impressionable
youths, and hooking them on
smoking. ”
Indeed, another recent survey,
according to Oluwafemi, also
shows that two persons die
each day in Lagos hospitals as a
result of tobacco-related
ailments.
With the theme of this year’s
event, many expect that the
focus will now shift to
demystifying those messages
being sold to girls which make
them embrace smoking as a
way of upping their beauty
profiles.
Perhaps, that will compel
manufacturers and marketers to
also review strategies. But then,
the health of the citizenry is at
the centre of it all.