Sefyo Singhateh made this disclosure on Wednesday during a three-day capacity building forum convened by the Ministry Health on tobacco control act for legal practitioners and police prosecutors.
The event currently underway in Tendaba camp, seeks to amplify efforts and enhance greater understanding on tobacco control policies, laws and regulation in the country, regional and global levels.
Presenting the topic -‘the health, socio-economic and environmental impacts of tobacco and its use’, Singhateh revealed that Non-Communicable Disease (NCDs) accounts for 34% of all deaths with most mortalities occurring from cardiovascular diseases, cancers, respiratory diseases and diabetes.
“Major risk factors been tobacco use, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and unhealthy diets. Smoking kills 33-50% of all those who use it by an average of 15 years prematurely.”
He also spoke about the substantial economic resources lost due to tobacco-related illnesses, premature disability, and death, noting that these losses are especially harmful in LMICs, where economic resources are needed for economic and social development.
On the prevalence of tobacco use nationally, Singhateh revealed that national prevalence of tobacco use is 16.7%.
“Prevalence shows alarming figures of 31% and 12.8% for male and female respectively. By age group, it is higher among 25-34 and 35-44years for men, 31.0% and 31.15% respectively. An average Gambian male aged 25 to 65 years smoke about 10 sticks of cigarettes, use of Shisha among school children aged 12 – 20 is about 8.4 %.” he added.
Commenting on why tobacco kills, he flagged that tobacco contains nicotine- an addictive substance, adding that cigarettes burns at 1000o C – releasing toxins in smoke.
In addition, he maintained that cigarette smoke has about 7,000 chemicals and 70 known carcinogens/harmful substances include tar, cadmium, lead, cyanide, nitrogen oxides, benzo(a) pyrine, carbon monoxide, vinyl chloride, acetaldehyde).
“It damages tissues throughout the body, clogs arteries, causes blood clots/bleeding.”
On the economic aspect, Singhateh said increased burden of Non-Communicable diseases – increased cost of provision of health care.
“Annual health care costs are higher for smokers, and the burden of these costs falls on families, the public purse and employers/insurers. Earnings and productivity losses because of tobacco-related illness and premature death can be huge, and are borne by employers and employees. Illness is a major precipitating cause of poverty and impact negatively on sustainable development.” he added.
