[Intl-tobacco] Kenya tobacco study boosts support for new law

[Robert Weissman]

The East African
Monday, May 14, 2001

New Study Boosts Kenya's Tobacco Bill
By Dagi Kimani, Special Correspondent

Results of a new study indicating that most Kenyans get hooked to the
cigarette in their teens or early twenties, are likely to give new
impetus to calls for the country to enact the pending Tobacco Control
Bill.

The country's tobacco industry opposes the Bill as "unworkable".

The study, by three researchers from the Kenya Medical Research
Institute (Kemri), also says that up to 62 per cent of smoking primary
school teachers in Nairobi were addicted, and only about 4 per cent
smoked for pleasure.

The study, which involved 800 teachers aged between 20 and 53 in the
Kenyan capital, also established that at least 50 per cent of the male
and 3 per cent of female teachers smoked. The research was conducted by
researchers from Kemri's Centre for Respiratory Diseases, led by Dr
D.H.O.  Kwamanga.

A report on the study appearing in the March issue of the East African
Medical Journal, says: "The majority of smokers in the study population
(52.3 per cent) started smoking at ages 18 to 24 while in Forms 4 to 6
or in tertiary colleges, while a substantial number started smoking at a
younger age than 18 years."

The earliest any of the subjects was found to have started smoking was
eight years. Thirty seven per cent of the teachers started smoking
before their 18th birthday and only 10 per cent were above 24, the
report says.

The findings indicate that overt cigarette advertising, which the Bill
intends to outlaw, was a critical factor. "Of the teachers who were
smokers, 65 per cent of the males and 57 per cent of the females
reported that their initiation into smoking was as a result of peer
influence instigated by commercial advertising. "Direct enticement to
individual teachers from commercial advertisement accounted for 20 per
cent for males and 24 per cent for females," the journal report says.

Most teachers said smoking was a either a habit (36.7 per cent) or an
addiction (25.4 per cent).  Others smoked to gain personality (18 per
cent) or cope with stress (15.6 per cent). Only four per cent used
cigarettes for pleasure.

The study, which adds to only a handful of Kenyan surveys to show that
smoking starts during adolescence, is likely to be cited by the
country's growing anti-smoking lobby in its push for the enactment of
the Bill, which contains stiff restrictions against promoting cigarettes
to the young, seeks to ban the sale of single stick cigarettes to curb
access by minors and also outlaws sponsorship of educational, cultural
or sporting events by tobacco firms.

Dr Kwamanga says his study, though limited to teachers, broadly agrees
with two others conducted by the University of Nairobi's Prof Bill Lore
in 1987 and 1988, which established that "smoking peaked between the
ages of 18 and 24 years."

"This is because this group is targeted by the tobacco industry's
advertising, promotion and sponsorship to not only start smoking but
also for those who are already smoking, to continue the practice and
even smoke more cigarettes," Dr Kwamanga concludes.

Kenya's tobacco industry, which is dominated by the multinational
British American Tobacco, disputes this, saying it has a deliberate
policy not to target minors and focuses on adult smokers.



http://www.nationaudio.com/News/EastAfrican/current/