Tessy Igomu
Despite having friends that smoked cigarettes, Kunle never did. He worked as a bouncer in a nightclub that allowed smoking, and he usually watched night revellers puff away gleefully, making rings in the air with smoke from cigarettes.
However, exposure to second-hand smoke caused him to develop allergies that triggered asthma attacks in him. This progressed into a permanent lung disease called bronchiectasis. Kunle died later from smoke-related lung complications at the age of 27.
The dangers associated with tobacco are overwhelming yet the number of people who embrace its use increases astronomically by the day.
Globally, tobacco kills more than 15,000 people every day, despite being the single most preventable cause of non-communicable diseases. By 2020, it is estimated that one in 10 deaths will occur as a result of tobacco, making it a public health and developmental threat.
Tobacco products (cigarettes, shisha and smokeless tobacco) have been reported to cause 16 different types of cancers, including lung and oral cancers, as well as chronic lung diseases. These, it was gathered, increase the risk of death 12 times. Tobacco has also been associated with increased risk of heart diseases, stroke, diabetes and tuberculosis. Smoking among pregnant women is said to increase the risk of miscarriage, pre-term delivery, low birth weight and sudden infant syndrome (SID).
About five million Nigerians are reported to use tobacco yearly with the highest prevalence of smoking reported in the South-East and South-South regions at 10.9 per cent and 9.3 per cent, respectively. They are followed by the North-Central region at 8.4 per cent. Based on this, it was estimated that 310 Nigerian men and women are killed by tobacco every week.
The Paediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN), while highlighting the dire consequences of tobacco consumption recently, said 16,100 Nigerians die of tobacco-related causes each year and, by 2030, eight million persons worldwide would die from tobacco use annually.
The medical experts, while reeling out more statistics, further put the number of Nigerians using tobacco products at 4.7 million. The body asserted that about 3.1 million engage in smoking, while 2.4 million of the lot, make smoking a daily habit. In all, it was revealed that over 20 billion sticks of cigarettes are consumed annually in the country.
Second-hand smoke, reputed to be the most dangerous to non-smokers, was also said to be very high in public places, with about 82 per cent in bars and nightclubs, 36.3 per cent in coffee shops and 29.3 per cent in restaurants.
Second-hand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke, is the combination of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke breathed out by smokers. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), second-hand smoke, which burns off the end of a cigarette or cigar, actually contains more harmful substances than the smoke inhaled by the smoker, as it does not pass through any filter. The centre disclosed that the smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, among which hundreds are toxic and about 70 capable of causing cancer.
It further said that second-hand smoke causes numerous health problems in infants and children, including more frequent and severe asthma attacks, respiratory infections and ear infections. In adults, some of the health conditions it causes include coronary heart disease, stroke and lung cancer.
“If you are a non-smoker but are exposed to second-hand smoke on a regular basis, your body will still absorb nicotine and other harmful substances. Smoke contains more than 4,000 chemical compounds, of which 250 are toxic and more than 50 are known cancer-causing agents. These dangerous substances linger in the air for approximately four hours and breathing in these particles for only minutes can harm you.
“Five minutes stiffens the aorta as much as smoking a cigarette. Twenty to 30 minutes causes excess blood clotting, as well as increases the build-up of fat deposits in blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart attacks and stroke. Two hours increases the chance of irregular heart beat (arrhythmia) and can trigger a fatal cardiac arrest or heart attack,” the centre noted.
Lately, medical experts have raised the alarm that tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke among the Nigerian school population and schools was gradually becoming an issue of public health concern.
Reports have it that about 15.4 per cent of school age children (13 to 15) already consume tobacco, while over 25 million Nigerian children and adolescents are at the risk of tobacco use or smoke exposure.
It has been generously stated that smoking has a record of causing a litany of health issues, including death.
Prof. Edwin Eseigbe, PAN technical advisor and chief medical director, Bingham University Teaching Hospital, asserted that burning tobacco produces more than 4,000 chemicals, including nicotine, carbon monoxide and tars. He explained that cigarette smoking boosts increased mucus production, clogging of the airways, increasing susceptibility to infections, pneumonias, development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (chronic bronchitis and emphysema), irritation and destruction of lung tissue, exacerbation of asthmatic attacks and lung cancer.
Effects of smoking on children are no less calamitous. Among such are respiratory tract infections, decreased lung function, asthma attacks, cognitive and behavioural issues, including the likelihood of becoming smokers.
The paediatric experts also rued the danger that innocent children are exposed to through second-hand smoke, alleging it was responsible for an estimated 166,000 child deaths each year worldwide.
Also listed as a potential health hazard by experts is third-hand smoke, which is a result of chemical residue on surfaces where smoking has occurred. They warned that this type of smoke has adverse effects on the liver and lungs, with children, especially those crawling, particularly vulnerable.
Furthermore, it has been noted that the environment suffers more from tobacco consumption. According to reports, air pollution caused by tobacco smoke alone is 10 times more than that of a diesel car exhaust. Also, cigarette butts, when disposed carelessly in the environment end up as toxic waste because they contain chemicals, pesticides and nicotine.
Health Think Analytics, a Nigeria-based research centre, said that tobacco consumption adversely affects socioeconomic status of Nigerians, and, consequently, the economy of the country.
Its recent survey indicated that the high mortality and morbidity rates resulting from tobacco consumption lead to the premature loss of productive lives of men, women and children, which is important for the growth of any nation’s economy.
It was revealed that as much as N7.45 billion is spent by Nigerians to buy cigarettes each year and a smoker spends 1.8 per cent of the national average income to buy 10 of the cheapest cigarettes every day.
“What’s worse? Those who have no form of education (an indicator of poor socioeconomic status) are more likely to smoke 10 or more cigarettes in a day, compared to those with higher educational levels. Hence, they spend scarce financial resources on cigarettes; resources that could have been spent on necessities like food and healthcare,” the centre noted.
Reports revealed that diseases caused by tobacco consumption are almost always chronic diseases which are expensive to treat, if treatable. And they are even more expensive to manage, resulting in families driven into poverty by tobacco, it was learnt.
Ineffective deterrents
In Nigeria, despite officially prohibiting public smoking, smokers puff away on their cigarettes with impunity.
Section 9 of the Nigeria Tobacco Control Act, 2015, stipulates that those that smoke in public are liable to a fine of at least N50,000 and or six months’ imprisonment.
In 2015, the Federal Ministry of Health gave a list of public places where smoking is prohibited by law in Nigeria to include child care facilities, educational facilities, health care facilities, playgrounds, amusement parks, public parks (gardens), stadia, restaurant, bars, public transportation parks and plazas.
Many have noted that despite efforts by the federal government to regulate cigarette smoking, including decades of vociferous campaigns against the habit, smoking of cigarettes has continued unabated. They, however, maintained that the trend would continue as long as no one had been prosecuted for violating that law.
Peter Okoli, a public health expert, stressed it was time the federal government woke up to its responsibilities by checkmating the indiscriminate use of tobacco in the country. He called for emphasis to be laid on campaigns that would dwell on the dangers of tobacco consumption to everyone.
While calling for enforcement of laws restricting tobacco consumption in the country, Tunde Alonge, a toxicologist, maintained that the negative effect of tobacco on health, economy and the environment was enough to effectively enforce the recently passed tobacco control bill. In his words, the federal government must act fast to prevent what is crippling the already fragile state of the people’s health and the country’s development.