Tobacco causes premature deaths

TOBACCO use, it is said, leads most commonly to diseases affecting the heart and lungs, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, and cancers, particularly lung and pancreatic cancers, as well as cancers of the larynx and mouth.
The use of tobacco also causes peripheral vascular disease and hypertension. These are all developed as a result of the length of time of use and the level of dosage of the product. Furthermore, the high level of tar content of the tobacco-filled cigarettes causes the greater risk of these diseases.
It has also been established that due to higher levels of tar content in third world countries, people who smoke in third world countries are more vulnerable to diseases. Poorer nations also lack the filters that richer nations have. However, the mortality rate does not show a significant decrease due to filters.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that tobacco caused 5.4 million deaths in 2004 and 100 million deaths over the course of the 20th century.
Similarly, the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention described tobacco use as "the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries and an important cause of premature death world-wide".
Smoke contains several carcinogenic pyrolytic products that have links with DNA and cause many genetic mutations. There are over 19 known chemical carcinogens in cigarette smoke which are dangerous to humans. Tobacco also contains nicotine, which is a highly addictive psychoactive chemical. When tobacco is smoked, nicotine causes physical and psychological dependency.
About the effect of tobacco use on children, health experts maintain that tobacco use is a significant factor in miscarriages among pregnant smokers. It contributed to a number of other threats to the health of the foetus such as premature births and low birth weight and increased by 1.4 to three times the probability of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
It is also important to note that the incidence of impotence was approximately 85 per cent higher in male smokers compared to non-smokers, and it was a key cause of erectile dysfunction (ED).
Looking at the issues raised above, it is significant for the world to find ways of reducing the volume of tobacco use and possibly stop it completely.
It is in view of this that between April 20 and April 23, this year, about 45 dignitaries from 20 countries will converge on Ghana under the umbrella of the WHO to deliberate on tobacco control issues.
Dubbed the Second Working Group Meeting on Article 17 and 18 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the conference seeks to enable participants to “interact with other global players to deliberate and strategise on the alternative livelihoods to tobacco growing in order to protect the environment and the health of persons in the production and manufacturing of tobacco products”.
In addition, the conference will draw the attention of all parties to the WHO-FCTC to raise awareness about the addictive and harmful nature of tobacco products and about industry interference with tobacco control policies.
An aspect of the objective that needs to be looked at critically is the fact that there is the need to promote alternative livelihoods to tobacco growing in order to protect the environment and the health of persons in the production and manufacturing of tobacco products.
According to the WHO, apart from those who smoke tobacco, people who cultivate and handle tobacco leaves were equally at risk of tobacco-related diseases such as green tobacco sickness, pesticide intoxication, respiratory and dermatological disorders and other types of cancers.
To help control the use of tobacco, the FCTC encouraged all parties to the convention to raise awareness about the addictive and harmful nature of tobacco products and about industry interference with tobacco control policies.
Additionally, it also called on all parties to avoid conflicts of interest such government officials and employees could monitor and evaluate measures to reduce exposure to tobacco smoke and enforce laws on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
At a ceremony to inaugurate members of a Local Planning Committee set up to see to the successful hosting of the conference in Accra, the Chairman of the committee, who is also the Chief Psychiatrist of Ghana, Dr Akwasi Osei, said, “Ghana, I must say, is in the good books of WHO as evidenced by even their choice of Ghana for this meeting and we cannot afford to disappoint them”.
Dr Osei assured the deputy minister that “we will do our utmost best for this meeting to be a memorable and a very productive one so that the working group can produce a document worthy of its sort”.
The outgoing Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Nii Oakley Quaye-Kuma, reiterated that tobacco smoking was unhealthy, caused chronic diseases and could lead to death.
He said what many people, smokers and non-smokers alike, might not know was the fact that tobacco use increased risks of cancer in many parts of the body in addition to the lungs.
These parts, according to the minister, included the head and neck, urinary bladder and kidneys, uterine, cervix, breast, pancreas and the colon.