TOBACCO USE FIGHT REQUIRES JOINT EFFORT

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TOBACCO USE FIGHT REQUIRES JOINT EFFORT
TOBACCO USE FIGHT REQUIRES JOINT EFFORT

Africa-Press – Botswana. Civil society organisations have been urged to collaborate with government in curbing the use of tobacco in Botswana.

In his keynote address during the national commemoration of World No Tobacco Day in Lobatse on Wednesday, Assistant Minister of Health Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe said several studies carried by his ministry showed that there was a tobacco use problem in this country that required to be managed.

He mentioned the Global Adult Tobacco Survey undertaken by the ministry in 2017 indicated that 17.6 per cent of adults used tobacco. Mr Lelatisitswe said statistics indicated that 18.5 percent of smokers in Botswana did it for recreation, stress relief, and due to peer pressure.

“These are worrying numbers indeed. And in the same survey, it is also indicated that 83.9 per cent of smokers want to quit the use of tobacco. This is an indication that many tobacco users have a great interest in quitting but are not managing on their own,” he explained.

He therefore called on civil society organisations to partner with government in assisting those who wanted to quit smoking tobacco, adding that government would not be able to assist them alone. Mr Lelatisitswe further noted that the same study indicated that smokers spent an average of P800 monthly on tobacco products.

“This is the money that could be used for provision of critical needs like food and other priorities,” he said. Mr Lelatisitswe said 95.3 per cent of adults covered by the study indicated that they believed tobacco smoking caused serious illnesses. He said 91.4 believed that exposure to tobacco smoke caused serious illnesses to non-smokers. “It was clear that tobacco use was harmful to both smokers and non-smokers.”

Mr Lelatisitswe pointed that Botswana government had made strides in the control of tobacco use and curbing its harmful effects to the society.

He said the strides included signing of World Health Organisation Framework on Prevention of Tobacco Control in 2003 and ratification of the same in 2005.

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