Anti-tobacco Activists are worried that cigarette, in spite of its well-known health hazards, is so cheap in Ghana that children can buy, especially because it is sold in single sticks instead of packs.
At the Mallam Attah Market in Accra New town where Public Agenda made enquiries, traders said a stick of some of the well-known brands went for as low as five Ghana pesewas whilst a pack went for between GH�1.00 and GH�1.50p. meanwhile, in the United States, a pack could go for as much as $5.00, the equivalent of over GH�7.00.
In Ghana, smoking parents often send their children to buy sticks and cigarettes for them and in some cases the children are asked to light the stick before bringing it. In their curiosity or in a bid to keep the �stick� alight, such children are tempted to take a puff. The nicotine ingredient then does the rest of the job on them.
Also, table top sellers of cigarettes tend to leave their wares with children who become sellers of the product. On such table tops the cigarettes are often sold alongside sweets, drinks and other confectioneries.
The Executive Director of Vision for alternative Development (VALD), Issah Ali, says the situation is unacceptable and that government and indeed all other stakeholders must join hands to make tobacco and tobacco products unattractive especially for young people.
At an anti-tobacco advocacy training for journalists, Issah Ali said tobacco must neither be sold to minors nor displayed openly alongside edibles. A good number of students in Ghana�s Junior and Senior High Schools are known to engage in one form of smoking or the other before they leave school. A survey conducted by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in 2005 shows that one-third of Junior High School pupils were exposed to the smoke even if they did not directly smoke.
The health implications of tobacco have come for mention severally. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says for example that close to 5million people die annually as a result of tobacco use and that someone dies every 6.5 seconds from tobacco use. It also reduces life expectancy by 20 to 25 years.
If the trend continues unchecked, tobacco is projected to kill 6million people in 2010, more than HIV, Malaria and TB combined, and over 10 million smokers and passive smokers by 2030 with 70% in developing countries including Ghana. Tobacco is said to be a poisonous social drug used for non medicinal purposes, its prolong use could lead to physical, mental damage and other social problems.
Over 40 chemicals which cause cancer in various organs of the body are known to be present in some tobacco products.
According to Dr. Promise E. Sefogah of Doctors for Right to Health, the effects of these chemical could lead to several other health complications including impotence and infertility aside the all too known cancers.
Cancer is a worldwide public health problem. It accounts for 12.5% of all deaths, more than the percentage of deaths cause by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria put together. It is the second leading cause of death in developed countries, and is among the three leading causes of death for adults in developing countries. And smoking has been proven to be the leading cause of this deadly sickness. For these reasons cigarette packs are to carry a label that attest to the harmfulness of the substance.
Ghana is yet to put in place a law that would regulate the tobacco industry and the use of tobacco especially as it affects non smokers. A tobacco control bill has been pending for some time now even as Ghana was one of the first countries to ratify the UN Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). But the lobbying power of Tobacco Companies, some have argued, cannot be discounted.
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