World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), Quit Smoking
Smoking is not just a bad habit but one that affects your health negatively. It is pertinent for those who are involved in this act to decline and quit.
On the World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), medical experts have made recommendations on how to quit the habit. The theme for this year’s World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) was “Commit to Quit” Medical experts warned that smokers face 50 per cent higher risk of developing severe disease and death from COVID-19 as well as cancers, infertility, abnormalities in babies born by smokers, lungs disease such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and premature death.
Countries have a clear and urgent opportunity to pass strong, evidence-based policies to accelerate reductions in the prevalence of smoking and reap massive health benefits for their citizens.
The level of awareness about the health risks of tobacco is still very low unlike in economically developed countries where the level of awareness continues to grow steadily. In addition, the promotion of tobacco smoking by the tobacco industry continues to grow due to giant funding from the tobacco industry; support for research on tobacco in developing countries is poor. The advertisement of tobacco in electronic, print and billboard has been effective in Nigeria but the smoking of tobacco on television by actors and actresses is still unabated.
The Federal Government of Nigeria needs to empower the regulatory agencies to ensure the enforcement of the Nigerian Tobacco Control Act and also support the respective states that have domesticated the Tobacco Smoke-Free Law by supporting the Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) Division in Federal Ministry of Health and the NCD unit in the states ministries of Health, Federal Ministry of Environment and State Ministry of Environment to enforce the law through impactful Budgetary lines and support for initiatives on enforcement of the Law. Most people are already addicted, and erroneously see smoking as a stress relief strategy and hold on to the perceived pleasure they get from the high that nicotine gives. A good knowledge of the serious health consequences and hazards of smoking would make anyone run away from smoking.