To this end, he warned that – “we are therefore sitting on a timed bomb which will explode in years to come, as these youths using tobacco will suffer the consequence at a time when we need them badly to shoulder the affairs of the country and to raise families and bring food to the table.”
In a statement read on his behalf by Dr. Momodou T Nyassi, acting director of Health Services, the Health Minister acknowledged that even those who manufacture this lethal product agree with these claims, but they are into this game for the sake of making money.
“As alluded to by the WHO rep, tobacco is destructive to our health, our environment, our economies and our livelihoods in general. We thank the World Health Organisation for consistently generating the science to support these claims. We are told that tobacco kills over 8 million people globally each year.”
Minister Samateh went further to ask how as a country being affected by this global threat and what is fueling this threat in the country?
“The answers are obvious. It is of great concern that nearly 16% of our population aged 15 years and above smoke cigarette and further 8.4% of our youth aged 12 to 20 years use shisha, another deadly form of tobacco now getting out of hand.”
To this end, he reminded that what is even worrying is the fact that about 11% of the country’s young children aged (13- 15) use any form of tobacco products; 9.2 of them smoke tobacco and about 7% of them smoke cigarettes.
He also stated that it is crucial to note that tobacco use is situated in a very complex environment and is determined by a host of factors.
“Analysis of this global youth tobacco survey we conducted in 2017 with the support of the WHO reveals that our children (13-15 years) are more likely to experiment smoking if they have at least one smoking parent, friends who smoke and if they see their teachers smoking. To further unpark these disturbing statistics, we also know that about 34% of them are exposed to tobacco smoke at home, about 62% of them are exposed to tobacco inside any indoor public place and about 56% of them are exposed to tobacco smoke inside any outdoor public place.”
