Accra: Governments around the world have been called upon to implement stronger policies, enforce stricter regulations, and wage relentless awareness against the tobacco industry's deceptive products. The call emphasizes the need to empower communities to reject tobacco products and educate the youth on the dangers of nicotine addiction.
According to Ghana News Agency, Mr. Godfred Tweneboah Kodua, Policy and Research Manager of the Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development Ghana (VAST-Ghana), a civil society organization, made this call in a statement to mark this year's World No Tobacco Day. The statement highlighted the devastating health impacts of the tobacco industry's products, such as cancers, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and premature death.
The statement emphasized the need to draw on ancestral wisdom to confront the modern challenges posed by the tobacco industry's deceptive practices. It criticized the industry's tactics of disguising harmful products as fashionable and harmless through colorful packaging and marketing strategies.
Mr. Kodua's statement urged governments, civil society, academia, media, and the public to remain vigilant and remind everyone of the inherent dangers of tobacco. The tobacco industry, he noted, has rewritten the narrative, leaving young people vulnerable and fueling addiction while profiting from their suffering.
In many African communities, the youth represent the promise of tomorrow, and failing to protect them from tobacco and nicotine addiction is tantamount to sowing the seeds of destruction. The statement condemned the industry's infiltration into entertainment and sports, glamorizing smoking and vaping as symbols of modern freedom and seducing the youth through music sponsorships, influencer partnerships, and sleek advertising.
The tobacco industry's false pretense of caring for public health by introducing so-called 'reduced harm' products like e-cigarettes and heated tobacco devices was also criticized. These products, claimed to be safer alternatives, were described as gateways to lifelong addiction.
As the world marks this year's World No Tobacco Day, the statement urged a collective stand to unmask the tobacco industry's deceptive ways and protect the most valuable resource-children and youth. It called for exposing the industry's 21st-century deception of presenting nicotine products as symbols of freedom and prestige, only to steal health, future, and lives.
