31 May 2022

Tobacco is more than nicotine, it is a substance that accounts for 3.5 per cent of total annual health expenditure and an unprecedented number of deaths worldwide.

In recognition of this, the Ministry of Health, together with its allies, yesterday commemorated World No Tobacco Day in Gaborone with a view to raising awareness about its negative health, social, economic and environmental impacts.

In his keynote address, Assistant Minister of Health Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe noted that  this year’s commemoration theme was Tobacco: Threat to our environment.

He said the aim was to sensitise the public about the fact that tobacco killed over eight million people every year and ultimately destroyed the environment.

With an annual greenhouse gas contribution of 84 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, Mr Lelatisitswe said the tobacco industry contributed to climate change, reduced climate resilience, wasted resources and damaged ecosystems.

He said tobacco use research indicated that nearly one billion people in the world, over 100 million of them in Africa, smoked every day.

The assistant minister stated that nearly 80 per cent of the more than one billion smokers lived in low and middle-income countries such as Botswana.

A 2015 global burden report indicated that nearly 2000 Batswana were killed by smoking-related diseases annually, he said.

“The already over-burdened health systems are caring for countless people who have been disabled by cancer, stroke, emphysema and the many other non-communicable diseases caused by tobacco,” he said.

Quoting the 2017 Institute of Health Metrics report, Mr Lelatisitswe said 27 men and 11 women died weekly due to tobacco-related diseases.

However, he said Botswana had made progress in curbing tobacco use and addressing its health impacts adding that the country signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003 and ratified it  two years later.

The assistant minister said the first tobacco control law in Botswana, Control of Smoking Act, was developed in 1992 but was repealed last year making way for a more comprehensive and WHO-compliant legislation, the Tobacco Control Act.

“The law has been assented and awaiting commencement after the completion of the regulations,” he said.

In her remarks, WHO representative, Dr Josephine Namboze said while tobacco leaf production was decreasing globally, it was increasing in Africa accounting for about 12 per cent of global production.

Nearly 90 per cent of Africa’s tobacco production  was concentrated in the East and Southern sub-regions, including Zimbabwe (26 per cent), Zambia (16.4 percent), Tanzania (14.4 per cent), Malawi (13.3 per cent) and Mozambique (13 per cent), she said.

Dr Namboze said tobacco  growing  was also a significant driver of deforestation due to the large quantities of wood needed for curing.

"Estimates are that the wood requirement to cure tobacco is responsible for 12 per cent of all deforestation in Southern Africa," she said.

Additionally, she said, tobacco cultivation exposed farmers to several health risks including ‘green tobacco sickness’, caused by nicotine absorbed through the skin during the handling of wet leaves as well as exposure to pesticides and tobacco dust.

The WHO representative said cigarette butts were by far the single largest category of litter with research showing that cellulose acetate-based cigarette filters were largely non-biodegradable.

There was no better evidence than the foregoing for Botswana to remain a non-tobacco growing country, said Dr Namboze.  
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