Stringent tobacco control vital - Mbongwe

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Thursday August 29, 2013 00:00

Speaking during a media workshop this week, Mbongwe argued that tobacco use impacted on health, poverty, malnutrition, education and the environment.She said government therefore needed to recognise tobacco control as a key component of efforts to reduce poverty, improve development and progress towards achieving millennium development goals.Low and middle-income countries, she said, are most affected as household income is often used to buy tobacco products.

In Botswana, she said, some people were failing to feed their families or improve their lives from their Ipelegeng income, which stands at P465. This is worsened by the fact that some hawkers give cigarette sticks on credit to buyers.  With a stick costing P2 some smokers report to be taking 10 sticks on credit per day, which amounts to P20 a day. In a month, such a smoker pays about P600 towards tobacco consumption from an already restrained budget. Mbongwe argued that this proves that tobacco consumes a high percentage of household income most needed for food, healthcare, education and other priorities.

She contends that if tobacco products were more expensive, poor families and children would not access it, which would be more beneficial for their health and development.Further, children, especially in the developing world, are likely not to access and complete primary school education due to abuse by the tobacco industry, she says.Children whose parents are employed in tobacco farms ultimately take over tasks from their parents and become addicts themselves due to their proximity with the substance.

Also, children often do not complete primary school education because poor families spend money on tobacco products rather than their children's education.Mbongwe said smokers with the HIV virus develop full-blown AIDS twice as quickly as non-smokers. This is due to the fact that tobacco itself kills when consumed exactly as the manufacturer intended and advised.Its use promotes the onset and outcomes of tuberculosis, a disease that mainly affects the poor across the globe.She is worried that tobacco control never appears as a top priority for many developing countries though it is one of the leading causes of problems.

The WHO Framework for Convention on Tobacco Control, which Botswana has prescribed to, is the solution for Africa since it reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health, and provides new legal dimensions for cooperation in tobacco control, Mbongwe said.However, implementation and follow-up on the regulations of tobacco from the convention has remained unsatisfactory.Minors continue to sell and buy tobacco products even though the convention prohibits them from doing so. Smoking at work and in public places continue though it is unlawful.