World No Tobacco Day: Why cigarettes shouldn”t be sold at cheap prices

Nigeria needs to introduce “Sin tax” on tobacco products in the country in order to assuage its impact on the health of the populace. “The Sin tax is a tax that is tagged to products that have adverse effect on the health of the populace in the United Kingdom and  other developed countries. Cigarettes is […]

Nigeria needs to introduce “Sin tax” on tobacco products in the country in order to assuage its impact on the health of the populace.
“The Sin tax is a tax that is tagged to products that have adverse effect on the health of the populace in the United Kingdom and  other developed countries. Cigarettes is not allowed to be sold at a cheap price there, it is sold at a higher price so that the money that is realized from tobacco sale is plunged back into the health system,” said Dr. Uche Ewelike, a public health expert.
In an interview with the Daily Trust health desk, he said that way tobacco would not be sold at a very cheap price, a practice which encourages Nigerians to smoke to death.
Ewelike who is also the Secretary, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria , FCT chapter said when taxation is introduced on products that cause harmful effects on people , the money realised is plunged back into the health system so that people who fall sick from tobacco will have access to health.
He said while a packet of a certain brand of cigarette costs only  200 naira in Nigeria now, in the United Kingdom, it costs about 4, 000 naira meaning that developed countries have understood the disadvantages of smoking tobacco.
Tobacco also has externality on Nigerians, he said, which implies the business or economic activity one does  affects the other person, in other words as you smoke, it is has an effect on the next person.
He said all over the world, tobacco is considered as one of the major contributors to mortality and the developing part of the world appears to be the one with the greater burden in terms of diseases caused by tobacco.
He said “tobacco affects every part of the body. From your head to the toe, there is no organ that is speared by tobacco. People think it is only cancer that tobacco causes. While  it causes lung cancer, it can also predispose you to stroke, coronary heart disease, and  make people utilize health care services more than is necessary because it reduces their immunity and predisposes them to a lot of other diseases, and death.
According to him, the issue of marketing, production and advertising  of tobacco  and tobacco products should adhere to international norms and standards , because it is not enough to say the Federal Ministry of  Health says ‘smokers are liable to die young” .
He said it is also important to tell the public in the packaging that tobacco causes a lot of effects; it is expensive and a habit difficult to control. In addition, it also contributes to poverty because if you become sick you go the hospital and also pay for the services.
He advised that restrictions on where people should smoke should be enforced. “All over the developed world countries, there are designated places for  smoking,  you don’t just  go anywhere to smoke. Smoking in public places should be prohibited. Nigerians should begin to act and demand that people should not smoke in public places because it is dangerous to their health,” he said.
Also the World Health organization in its statement to commemorate the World No Tobacco Day today, said recent moves to introduce plain (standardized) packaging of tobacco products can save lives by reducing demand for tobacco products.
WHO Regional Director, Dr Matshidiso Moeti said The theme of this year’s World No Tobacco Day is ‘Get ready for plain packaging’.
Plain packaging of tobacco products refers to measures that require packages of all tobacco products to have a standard colour and style, and to bear only the name of the product. Plain packaging therefore restricts or prohibits the use of logos, colours, brand images and promotional information on packaging oftobacco products, she said.
Plain packaging also reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products, and eliminates the use of tobacco packaging as a form of tobacco advertising and promotion.
 In the African Region, about 146,000 adults aged 30 years and above die every year from tobacco-related diseases. This makes tobacco one of the leading preventable risk factors for non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lung disease and diabetes.