SA celebrates No Tobacco Day

No Tobacco Day was celebrated around the world on 31 May.

This annual celebration focuses on the dangers of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what the World Health Organisation (WHO) is doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and what people around the world can do to protect the right to health and healthy living for themselves and for future generations.

According to WHO:

· Nearly 6 million people are killed by tobacco each year.

· 600 000 people die each year from exposure to second-hand smoke.

· 63 percent of all deaths are caused by non-communicable diseases with tobacco as the greatest risk factor.

In a 2004 study conducted by National Health Laboratory Service, and Witwatersrand University, if smokers had the same death rate as non-smokers, 58 percent of lung cancer deaths, 37 percent of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths, 20 percent of tuberculosis deaths, and 23 percent of vascular deaths would have been avoided. About 8 percent of all adult deaths in South Africa (more than 20 000 deaths a year) were caused by smoking in the period of study.

In a report on the Global Burden of Disease in 2010, smoking is already the second most important risk factor for deaths worldwide, second to only hypertension.

According to the 2013 national statistics in the South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 16.4 percent of South Africans were smokers in 2012. This is a significant drop from 32 percent in 1993. This significant drop may be attributed to numerous changes made since 1993 in an attempt to reduce smoking related deaths in the country. For example, in 2005 South Africa ratifies WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which gave governments a framework for quickly passing and implementing evidence-based tobacco control laws. In that same year only about 18 percent of South African adults smoked.

According to reports, in 2008 an amendment to the Tobacco Products Control Act aligned the country’s policies with FCTC guidelines by, for example, raising the legal smoking age to 18 years, restricting tobacco sponsorship and promotion and mandating more extensive health warnings at points of sale.

In 2012 smoking rates in South Africa fell to about 16 percent of adults, but smoking was still responsible for 44 000 deaths each year.

As a means to combat secondary smoking related death tolls, in 2012 South Africa drafted regulations that would ban smoking in public places and certain outdoor public places, such as beaches and outdoor eating areas, were gazetted, but have not been passed into law as of 2014.

In 2013 South Africa also signed an international treaty to clamp down on the illegal trade in cigarettes.