Tough times for big tobacco
By M.M. Mamman
IN the last few decades there have been serious concerns among health authorities on the alarming increase in the rate of tobacco consumption globally. Statistics provided by the World Health Organisation suggest that in some Western European countries as much as 25 per cent of the population smoke. This suggests that roughly one in every three adults lights-up. Consumption patterns differ around the globe. In high per capita economies, consumers purchase in packs which could easily translate to increased consumption. In the Third world, however, affordability is low and consumers purchase in sticks. The health implication of tobacco use however remains the same worldwide.
Cancer of the mouth, lungs and throat, pulmonary heart disease, low birth weight and high infant mortality are among the several health risks associated with tobacco use. Medical history analysis reveals that early miscarriages among smoking expectant mothers occur twice as frequently as among non-smokers; still-births among the former occur four times more frequently. Further research has revealed that smokers in their 40s are twice as likely to die before reaching the age of 60 than non-smokers, according to figures from the life assurance industry. The report, based on data from every life assurance company in Britain, highlights how a generation of heavy smokers, now in their 50s and 60s, are paying the price of nicotine addiction. It reveals striking mortality differences between smokers and non-smokers, and suggests that the gap between may still be widening. Women, it says, may be worse off than men when it comes to the "excess mortality" caused by smoking.
The British Insurance Policy body, the Continuous Mortality Investigation Bureau found that across some classes of business, male smokers have a 100 per cent higher level of mortality, up from 70 per cent in its last survey, in 1991-94. For female smokers, the mortality gap is 117 per cent. A popular definition describes a cigarette as "a pint of tobacco rolled in paper with fire on one end and a fool at the other". Despite the realities on hand, many people around the world continue to smoke.
In terms of social ills, WHO has revealed that in low income economies, tobacco consumption helps to increase poverty by robbing families of much needed income which should otherwise have been utilised to purchase domestic necessities. Stigmatisation, body odour and nicotine finger stains are also some of the negative consequences of tobacco use. Concerns about the gradual descent of their citizenry towards tobacco slavery have compelled governments in developed countries to introduce stiff legislations to check the proliferation of tobacco in their countries. Taxes have been multiplied, in some cases by more than 300 times. A minimum age for tobacco use was introduced. Smoking in public places is increasingly being banned, with stiff penalties for defaults. Brand advertisement had since been stopped.
Recent developments indicate that in countries like Ireland, Australia and Singapore, tobacco manufacturers are required to print pictures of diseased human organs alongside the traditional health warning on each cigarette pack to serve as deterrence. Revolutionary ideas like the introduction of self extinguishing cigarettes are being pioneered by mega cities like New York. In some areas of the world, smoking in night clubs and cafes, have been banned too.
Analysts suggest that these emerging strangulating regulations may have informed the sudden influx of tobacco companies into Third world nations where tobacco legislations are lax or even non-existent. Another point is the fact that being revenue spinners, tobacco corporations are exploiting the cash crunch in poor nations to manipulate government policy in order to create a conducive atmosphere for the unabated production and marketing of their 'evil weed'.
Unconfirmed figures suggest that there is a steady rise in tobacco consumption in the developing world within the last decade. Camouflaging as economic development partners and mega employers of labour, western tobacco corporations are dumping products rejected in their home countries into the markets of Africa, South America and the Caribbean. They are smiling to the banks, while consumers, mostly the youth are limping to the surgeries and their early graves. In Nigeria, the tobacco sector has become more vibrant in the last five years. Legitimate producers like British American Tobacco Nigeria and Phillip Morris are locked in a stiff competition with contraband smugglers and counterfeiters for the hard earned naira of the ill informed Nigerian puffer.
The government however remains the major beneficiary from the 'evil weed' trade with revenues in excess of N10 billion last year alone. The greed of the nation's political class may have informed their initial reluctance to sign the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) when it was first introduced by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The government was eventually subdued by anti-tobacco lobby groups.
Recently, the House of Representatives has taken up the challenge. Law-makers are today introducing a new legislation on tobacco. The proposed law seeks to protect the nation's citizenry from a trans-national greed that feeds fat on peddling lethal products. The new bill on tobacco control has passed the first reading in the House. It was proposed by Honourable Aliyu Wadada, (PDP - Nasarawa) and is seeking to stifle product advertisement, restrict tobacco use among the youth and impose strict controls on tobacco production.
The proposed law is also seeking to ban tobacco advertisement in Radio, Television, theatres, home video and billboards. It prescribes a penalty of N10,000 in fines or two months imprisonment or both on violators. Children below the age of 18 will also be prevented from smoking or gaining access to tobacco products by barring such underage persons from selling, distributing or participating in tobacco promotion campaigns. When the new law becomes effective, tobacco producers will be required to inscribe on cigarette packs bold information on tar and nicotine contents and also provide a list of health hazards alongside already existing health warnings.
However, the fight against tobacco addiction remains all inclusive. Earlier, on January 8, 2004, at its inaugural council meeting in Lagos, the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) had taken the lead in the war against tobacco. It issued a directive prohibiting outdoor tobacco product advertisement with effect from December this year. Print media product adverts were also restricted to inside pages and should be in black and white only.
In the same vein, APCON had since halted radio, television and video adverts of tobacco products in Nigeria. Observers foresee a tobacco market shrink as the stringent restrictions may reduce cigarette consumption nation-wide. As earlier mentioned, pundits suspect that the bill may have been spurned by the anti-tobacco lobby which recently persuaded the Federal Government to sign the FCTC.
It would be recalled that when the FCTC closed for signature on June 29 this year, 168 of the 191 WHO member-countries had signed it. It is widely believed that the local legislation now being proposed will be streamlined to complement the provisions of the FCTC. This is seen by analysts as a demonstration of Nigeria's "increasing commitment to the control of the tobacco epidemic which is expanding at an alarming rate in developing countries", as decried by WHO officials. Truth is: big tobacco is in for big trouble!
- Mamman lives in Abuja, FCT.
