20 May 2018

The Ministry of Health and Wellness will commemorate World No Tobacco Day in Francistown at Chedu Choga Grounds on May 31.

Speaking at a media briefing recently, Greater Francistown District Health Management Team (DHMT) representative, Mr Doctor Makabe explained that the objective of the day was to increase public awareness of the dangers of tobacco use and to encourage the public to 24 hours of non-tobacco use.

For his part, the acting national coordinator for tobacco control, Mr Ephraim Rapalai explained that tobacco use killed more people than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and accidents combined.

He noted that seven million people died each year from tobacco use whilst 900 000 died each year of second hand smoke and that 165 000 of them were children.

Mr Rapalai further noted that tobacco was the only risk factor shared by all four main categories of non-communicable diseases, which included cardio vascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases.

He said 20 per cent of all types of cancers in Botswana had shown to be caused by smoking.

Mr Rapalai said the ministry had introduced a 30 per cent tobacco levy in order to cut down on smoking to reduce deaths. ENDS