World Health Organisation (WHO) has said over eight million people die yearly due to tobacco consumption.
In a statement issued yesterday by the Regional Director, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, to mark the 2023 World No Tobacco Day, the global agency said the epidemic is one of the biggest public health challenges the world has ever witnessed.
She observed that while the number of people using tobacco products is decreasing in other parts of the world, it is, however, rising in Africa.
Moeti said the number of tobacco users in WHO African Region increased from an estimated 64 million adults in 2000 to 73 million in 2018.
The increase, according to her, followed improved production and aggressive marketing by the industry.
She urged that the occasion should be used by stakeholders to renew advocacy for effective policies to check the problem and impact on individuals, societies and nations.
Her words: “This year’s theme is: “Grow Food, Not Tobacco.” This theme aims to raise awareness about alternative crop production and marketing opportunities for tobacco farmers and encourage them to grow sustainable and nutritious crops.
“The theme also seeks to expose the industry’s efforts to interfere with attempts to substitute tobacco growing with sustainable crops, thereby worsening the global food crisis. It calls on all of us to explore how food and agricultural policies make adequate nutritious food and healthy diets available, while reducing tobacco production.”
The statement added that tobacco farming destroys the ecosystem, depletes fertile soils, contaminates water bodies and pollutes the environment.
“Any profit to be gained from tobacco as a cash crop may not offset the damage done to sustainable food production in low and middle-income countries.”
“Nearly 828 million people are facing hunger globally. Of these, 278 million (20 per cent) are in Africa. In addition, 57.9 per cent of people on the continent suffer from moderate to severe food shortage,” the organisation said.
