The minister who spoke at the official release of the
Nigeria Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) in Abuja also warned that if the
trend continues, tobacco use will kill over eight million each year by 2030.
According to the report about 4.7million Nigerians are
addicted to the usage of tobacco products.
The report also revealed that while 3.1million adults smoke
the product, about 1.6million others are obsessed with smokeless tobacco.
Speaking at the occasion, the minister of health Prof.
Onyebuchi Chukwu said that tobacco use whether smoked, chewed, sniffed or
however way it is consumed constitutes major threat to public health.
Chukwu said “Globally, WHO estimates that 6 million people
die from tobacco use annually, and more than 600,000 people are exposed to
second-hand smoke. If current trends continue, by 2030, approximately 80
percent of the 8 million projected annual deaths from tobacco use will occur in
low and middle –income countries.”
Tobacco use he further said ‘remains one of the leading
preventable causes of death, killing up to one half of all its users.’
He added that “tobacco is the only legal consumer product
that kills one third to one half of those who use it as intended by its
manufacturers, with its victims dying on average 15 years prematurely”.
He stressed that tobacco use cause disease, disability and
premature death and has no known health benefit. In wealthy countries, strong
public health tobacco control policies and preventive programmes have been put
in place but these are still weak in developing countries where the tobacco
industry is still thriving.
He however noted that Nigeria now has the opportunity to
prevent initiation and avoid the social and economic burden that tobacco use
has proven to cause by passing and implementing a comprehensive set of tobacco
control policies and legislation.
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