The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, has advocated a hike in taxation on tobacco as a mechanism to control its consumption.
CISLAC which made the advocacy at a seminar in Umuahia, Abia State, decried the reluctance of Government to implement various tobacco tax laws.
Programme Manager of the non-governmental organization, Mr Okeke Anya, noted that tobacco taxes could not only be used by Government to shore up revenues but could also serve as a an effective public health intervention to shrink tobacco consumption.
He argued that when prices of tobacco are jacked up as a result of increase in taxation, majority of smokers especially among low income earners would stay away from the product.
The CISLAC officer who regretted the reluctance of Government at various levels to control tobacco consumption despite efforts of the NGO, appealed to the incoming administration to seriously consider effective tobacco control via taxation.
Decrying the harmful effects of tobacco he said:"the true face of tobacco is disease, horror and death", adding that "cigarette smoking is the chief single cause of avoidable death across the globe".
" Tobacco kills up to half of the population of its users", he warned.
He further said that out of the 8 million smokers who die of tobacco annually, 1.2 million of them are second hand smokers (people who are exposed to inhalation of cigarette smoke).
According to him 80% of the deaths by occur among low income earners who usually lack the needed economic support to manage tobacco -induced diseases.
He disclosed that a recent study estimated that tobacco would kill up to 1 billion people in this century if no urgent measures were taken to control its consumption.
" Tobacco harms nearly every organ in the body, and reduces the smoker's overall health and lifespan", he regretted.
He advised parents and guardians to watch out for the novel forms of cigarette smoking like 'shisha', and e-cigaretts.
According to him, a session of shisha is equivalent to 100 sticks of cigarette, warning that harmful components of shisha pose serious health hazards to smokers.
He noted that cigarette contains about 7000 chemicals capable of causing cancer, and some harmful particles such as rat poison, acetic acid, cadmium used in battery production, tar, etc
He said that a study had revealed that a stick of cigarette reduces the life of the smoker by 11 minutes.
Anya added that " even herbivorous animals don't eat tobacco leaves".
Executive Director, Initiative for Ideal Development And Emancipatory Leadership in Nigeria, IDEAL-NIGERIA, Pastor Innocent Nwokocha, said that increase in the price of cigarette as a result of hike in taxation would lead to a sharp drop in the number of smokers particularly among the low class.
Participants at the seminar regretted that Government had abdicated its responsibility of dissemination of adequate information on the dangers of cigarette to NGOs.
They also suggested that regional and sub regional Governments should impose tax policies that would make it compulsory for cigarette sellers to obtain licenses as a way to raise government revenue.
The participant expressed concern that low income earners among cigarette smokers might not be able to cope with the treatment of diseases associated with cigarette, and called on Government not to hesitate to take any step that could discourage people from smoking.
No comments:
Post a Comment