By Isaac Pinielo
Stopping efforts by the tobacco industry to thwart effective tobacco control must be carried out by partnerships between governments and all stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations, a health minister in Botswana has said.
Minister Dr John Seakgosing was speaking during the recent World No Tobacco Day (31 May) commemorations that were held at Dukwi village, about hundred kilometers from the country’s second city of Francistown.
He said the government alone is incapable of stopping the tobacco industry from interfering with government efforts to control tobacco use.
According to Dr Seakgosing, the tobacco industry uses different strategies which include marketing the product in such a way that the buyer will be deceived from the onset, selling and exposing tobacco to minors and to the vulnerable groups in the society and coming up with different tobacco names and brands that will appeal to the consumers.
He also accused the industry of engaging in illicit trade practices, sponsoring social events in the pretext of being responsible, engaging in illegal cross border transportation of tobacco products, and disregarding the legal policy requirements of countries they operate from.
He said it is saddening that the main aim of the tobacco industry is in making profit with little interest on people’s health or wellbeing.
Speaking earlier, Dr Eugene Nyarko, of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said there is evidence of increasing use of tobacco particularly among girls. He said tobacco use kill nearly six million people each year. Of these, more than 600,000 are people exposed to second-hand smoke.
“In fact, tobacco kills up to one half of all users and remains one of the leading preventable causes of death,” he said.
Nyarko said since tobacco has no known health benefits the tobacco industry cannot be a stakeholder in improving public health. He accentuated that, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence of the harm that tobacco consumption causes to human health from infancy to adulthood, the tobacco industry continues use all kinds of deceptive strategies and methods to stop tobacco control efforts by governments and individuals.
He said some of the strategies include funding some of the best researchers and institutions to counter scientific research on the negative impact of tobacco, using its financial power to persuade politicians to influence policy and legislation on tobacco use and forming or funding consumer and rights groups who in turn speak for them.
