As part of its efforts at promoting open governance on public health issues, Health Education and Empowerment Initiative, HEDEN, has begun a campaign against smoking.
The non-governmental organisation is embarking on a monthly campaign on Sweet FM, a radio station in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The choice of a radio programme, HEDEN explained, was to reach a large number of people.
In the current edition of the programme, the Executive Director of HEDEN, Mrs. Folasade Ofurune, discussed the link between tobacco control policy and public health.
She highlighted the dangers of smoking, pointing out that 7 million people die yearly from tobacco smoke, according to statistics from the World Health Organisation.
She said of the 7 million people, 890,000 die as a result of inhaling second-hand smoke.
Some of the dangers of tobacco smoke, she said, included cancers of different kinds.
According to her, smoking is also responsible for cardiovascular diseases, sudden death among infants, and low birth weight in neonates.
Ofurune further stated that it was worrisome that the tobacco epidemic was preventable yet it claimed millions of lives every year.
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“Studies have shown that many people do not understand the specific health impact of tobacco. For instance, research in China found that only 38% of smokers knew that smoking causes coronary health diseases and 27% knew that it causes stroke (WHO, 2018). This significant impact shows that advocacy for improvement in government Tobacco control policy is apt,” she said.
Ofurune highlighted the efforts made by the World Health Organisation to fight tobacco smoking and its effect.
“WHO set up the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in 2003 and it came into force in 2005.
“The WHO FCTC upholds the highest standard of health and compliance to reduce tobacco epidemic.
“In 2008, WHO set up the MPOWER policies as a practical, cost-effective way to scale up implementation of the demand reduction in the WHO FCTC.
“The MPOWER stands for monitor tobacco use and prevention policies; protect people from tobacco smoke; offer help to quit tobacco use; warn about the dangers of tobacco; enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship, and raise taxes on tobacco,” she said.
