[Intl-tobacco] Smoking - Africa's lurking killer

[Robert Weissman]

Smoking - Africa's lurking killer
Source: News24, Monday, 10/23/00


Nairobi, Kenya - Saturation advertising by international tobacco
companies is
in large part responsible for the steady increase in smoking in Africa
over the
past decade, a policy planning group said on Monday.

Statistics indicate that the incidence of smoking in African countries
ranges
from an estimated low of 15 percent of the adult population to a high of
67
percent, according to the group, which includes legislators from
English-speaking African countries, representatives of the World Health
Organisation, the US-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention,
the
World Bank, the Organisation of African Unity and non-governmental
organisations.

The rate of the annual increase in smoking in Africa is estimated to be
2.5
percent higher than the rate of increase in other developing countries,
the
group said in a statement.

"Tobacco is itself a disease, an epidemic and communicable," said Lardja

Sanwougu, of the World Health Organisation's Tobacco-Free Initiative for
the
region. "Unlike other diseases that are transmitted by virus ... the
vector
transmitting it is advertising."

Sanwougu spoke at the opening of a five-day meeting on tobacco control
policy
and programming in the region.

The Geneva-based WHO is planning a global convention to draw up a treaty
on
tobacco regulation through which signatory nations would agree to enact
stringent legislation.

Participants addressing the meeting said cigarette sales in developing
countries have increased by 80 percent since 1990.

Sanwougu said although there are no figures available on tobacco-related
deaths
in Africa, in 1998 at least 4 million people world-wide died from
tobacco-related ailments.

CDC official Lawrence Green said tobacco-related diseases are projected
to
become the biggest killer in Africa in the next 20 years, causing more
deaths
than Aids, malaria, tuberculosis, maternal mortality, automobile
crashes,
homicides and suicides combined.

In a faxed statement, British American Tobacco, one of the main
multinational
tobacco companies operating in the region, expressed concern that the
tobacco
industry and governments were being excluded from the policy-making
process on
how tobacco use would be regulated.

BAT proposed that the convention:

come up with a series of recommendations or guidelines, not a legally
binding
regulation;

give all stakeholders, including government departments and the private
sector
"a proper chance to input their views"; and

"recognise that those sovereign governments, not Swiss bureaucrats, are
best
placed to regulate on tobacco".

The statement said the WHO convention "would appear to be an attack on
Kenyan
sovereignty".

In a statement, WHO Regional Director for Africa Ebrahim M Samba said
countries
need to develop comprehensive tobacco control programmes to protect the
health
of their populations.

"It takes the entire community - youth, educators, health workers,
clergies,
general public and doctors to fight the deadly epidemic," Samba said.
"You, as
representatives of NGOs, ministries of health and the World Health
Organisation
play an important role in developing these programmes."

He said the tobacco control programmes should include legislative
actions,
public awareness programmes, increased taxes on tobacco products, bans
on
advertising and promotion and restricting smoking in the workplace and
public
places.

Parliament in Kenya is expected to debate a draft bill on tobacco
regulation
during its current session.