By Juliet Makwama in Cape Town
While smoking rates are going down in other parts of the world due to people switching to smoke free products, populations that are using combustion tobacco in Africa are said to be increasing, a situation that worries stakeholders concerned about public health at continental level.
Statistics from the World Health Organization WHO currently project that the smoking population in Africa alone will grow to 84 million this year, compared to only 52 million in the year 2000 and 66 million in 2015.
This shows an increase of more that 60 percent, at a time when smoking rates are going down in other regions of the world such as Middle East, Europe, Asia and North America.
And during the Smoke Free Technovation by Philip Morris International PMI held in Cape Town, South Africa, stakeholders pondered on what Africa must do to save its smoking population from the harms of combustion tobacco which are detrimental to health.
The conference also came with the tagline, “if you don’t smoke don’t start, if you smoke quit, if you can’t quit, change,” emphasising a clear warning about the risks of smoking and the importance of avoiding it all together, while encouraging less harmful alternatives to adult consumers who find it difficult to quit.
And PMI’s Sub-Saharan Africa Area Vice President Branislav Bibic expressed concern that despite decades of tobacco control measures, the decline rates for smoking in Africa have been marginal, with the number of smokers rising as the population grows.
“Africa has a smoking problem,” he said, “It has a growing number of smokers while at the same time, rates are declining fast in the global north, the developed countries.”
Bibic said this is because the regions have embraced advances in science and technology which has brought about new reduced risk nicotine products that are still delivering the nicotine that smokers want but eliminating the burning of tobacco.
“And by doing so, they greatly reduce or even eliminate the toxicants found in the cigarette smoke. Smokers have embraced these new technologies and are switching from cigarettes to smoke free products,” he said.
According to Our World in Data, tobacco-related deaths are disproportionately higher in developing countries compared to developed nations.
It also acknowledges that while developed countries have seen a decline in smoking-related deaths due to public health initiatives, developing nations are facing a growing epidemic with a projected 70% of global tobacco-related deaths occurring in these regions by 2030.
For PMI, it is crucial to note that while smoke-free products are not risk-free, they are intended as an alternative for adult smokers who cannot quit smoking, instead of them continuing to use combustion tobacco which is a huge threat to public health.
Bibic said in order to fast track a smoke free Africa that will benefit public health, governments on the continent need to champion effective policies.
He emphasized that the adoption of smoke free products is fastest in countries where the adult consumers have easy access to the products.
Bibic is optimistic that with Africa having already shown that it is good at adopting new technologies as evidenced through the positive reception of wifi for connectivity, mobile money transactions and solar among others, the continent will equally embrace smoke free products, with the passage of time.
“Fortunately, we know that Africa is good at embracing new technologies despite delays. Even with this, Africa has been able to even provide innovations that are adaptive to the local circumstances,” he added.
In the developed world, smoke free products account for between 20 to 50 percent as cigarette consumption has already been replaced by smoke free products, drastically reducing the chances of cancer and other conditions, or even deaths resulting from smoking.
Bibic highlighted that many governments are recognising the public health benefits of the new technologies driven transformation and are supporting it with specific regulation and taxation.
He said embracing smoke free products is no longer a vision statement in corporate presentations, but a technological revolution that has already happened in developed countries.
With the legal cigarette market in South Africa for instance already replaced by smoke free products, stakeholders are hopeful that this will be replicated in other parts of the continent.
Smoke-free products such as e-cigarettes or heated tobacco products are said to be more public health-friendly than cigarettes because they eliminate combustion, resulting in a significant reduction in the levels of harmful chemicals and toxins released.
By avoiding combustion, smokers who use smoke-free products reduce their levels exposure to harmful chemicals and toxins, including those known to cause cancer, respiratory problems, and cardiovascular diseases, which are prevalent in cigarette smoke.
Studies suggest that smokers who switch to smoke-free alternatives experience a significant reduction in their exposure to these harmful chemicals compared to those who continue to smoke.
