TOBACCO is one of the few openly available commercial products that is virtually unregulated in terms of its contents and emissions.
At the same time, it is the only legally available product that kills up to one half of its regular users when consumed as recommended by its manufacturer.
Tobacco use is also not limited to cigarettes but includes the use of piped tobacco, cigars, snuffs, chew tobacco, shisha, roll-your-own cigarettes and bidis, which are popular in the Indian subcontinent, says Zarihah M. Zain from the Malaysian Women’s Action for Tobacco Control & Health (MyWATCH).
WHO strategies to effectively decrease tobacco demand and its consequences include monitoring trends of tobacco use, effective implementation of tobacco control actions and tobacco industry counteractions, protection from tobacco smoke by extensive smoking restrictions and offering smoking cessation therapies.
It also includes warning the public about the dangers of tobacco and enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and raising tobacco prices through higher taxes. However, there are challenges in implementing these measures effectively.
“Despite millions of pages of evidence linking smoking to lots of diseases, the idea is still not very well embraced by the average consumer,” says Zarihah. Even within the medical fraternity, health professionals don’t feel that it is their responsibility to do something about the problem. There is also a preoccupation with other diseases compared to tobacco use.
“Some ask why is there so much focus on tobacco by WHO when Ebola is on our doorstep but they don’t realise that tobacco has killed more people than Ebola.”
Medical professionals are still focusing on curative rather than preventive medicine where tobacco is concerned. Zarihah says they are not focusing enough efforts on helping people to quit or to prevent them from starting in the first place.
“We will eventually never be able to afford treating all these diseases from tobacco. The most cost- effective way would be to prevent it from happening.”
Smoking and alcohol use are also still viewed as a behaviour, a personal choice, and that people can quit anytime — but that’s not true. Zarihah stresses that the smoking addiction is a disease and is included in WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and it should be treated as one.