Nigeria: Smoking - 6.5 Million Risk Death in 2010
Ben Ukeji
1 February 2010

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Email|Print|Comment
Share:
Abuja — No fewer than 6.5 million Nigerian smokers may die this year from tobacco-related sickness.

An international expert, Akinbode Oluwafemi, who said this also said about 65 million Nigerians smoke cigarette.

Olwafemi said that inability of government to tax tobacco producing companies heavily was responsible for the cheap prices of cigarette making it easily available to low income earners.

According to him, increased taxation will lead to increase price of the product thereby, discouraging the youths who were the most vulnerable group from smoking cigarette.

He said a pack of cigarette that sells for N200 in Nigeria goes for about $5 in the United States of America (USA) due to the heavy taxation placed on the manufacturing companies saying "smoking is a sure gateway to drug addiction."

While describing smoking as a major risk factor for different cancer cases, Akinbode said it is also linked to about fifteen various cases of cancer in human body saying "apart from the high cost of treatment, infrastructural challenges, smoking related cancers accounts for 30 per cent of cancer related deaths."

The expert who is the Programme Manager, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria said that cigarette contains about 4000 toxic and cancer causing chemicals and is responsible for more than 85 per cent cases of lung cancer.

Relevant Links
West Africa
Nigeria
Health
He said that smoking causes cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, stomach, pancreas, uterine, cervix, kidney, ureter, bladder and the colon.

While urging the National Assembly to hasten the process of passage of bill on the ban on tobacco smoking in the country, Oluwafemi urged Nigerians to support the passage of the National Tobacco Control Bill.

The Secretary for Social Development of the FCDA, Habiba Kalgo while declaring the workshop open said the decision to ban smoking in public places in FCT was necessitated by the increase in the number of deaths arising from cancer cases in the FCT.

She, however, urged FCT residents to support the ban since they were the secondhand smokers were also affected by the fumes of the product


http://allafrica.com/stories/201002010204.html?

plz plz plz! smoking shldnt b banned. currently,d almajiris in d north smoke most, hopefully it will reduce d number of future terrorists

If 6.5 million people die as a result of their own lack of care for their health. I think it will make life a bit easier on the social amenities for the rest of us? You know, free up jobs, schools, road etc.

This should be moved to health section,please

is in the both heath, this serious matter, is for us to rethink, smoking is too dangerous to the health, i dont wish any of my bros to die, plz keep off in smoking

65 Million people smoke?
I find this number alarming because maybe 2% of the 65 million is females that leaves roughly 64 million males.

In the 2006 census males numbered roughly 71 million. 64/71*100 is 85%.
That means 85% of the male populace in Nigeria smoke and that's saying 1 million females smoke which i think is a gross overestimation