By Victor Christopher @iamvictorcool
The Head of Human Anatomy Department at the Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Dr. Maryam Nasir Aliyu has charged government at all level to ban or regulate the use of cigarettes in higher institutions as part of effort to have a smoke-free institution.
Dr. Maryam made the plea in an event organized by by an youth advocacy group, Protecting and Activating Communities Against Tobacco (PACT), stressing that smoke-free signage should be placed in strategic places in campus to halt the untimely death caused by tobacco.
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Dr. Maryam, who is also a medical practitioner, and a cancer advocate expressed dismay that tobacco smoking is the number one leading cause of breast and lung cancer, stressing that having smoke-free joints in higher institutions will go a long way in halting the spread of cancer.
Dr. Maryam further says “The nicotine contained in tobacco use is a major risk factor for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, over 20 different types of cancer, and many other debilitating health conditions”.
The World Health Organization (WHO), estimates that tobacco kills half of all its users, killing more than 8 million people each year, including 1.3 million non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke.
According to WHO, second-hand smoke exposure has also been implicated in adverse health outcomes, causing 1.2 million deaths annually. Nearly half of all children breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke and 65,000 children die each year due to illness related to second-hand smoke.
Smoking while pregnant can lead to several life-long health conditions for babies. A report from the organization says around 80 percent of the world’s 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low and middle-income countries.
The report further says thirty thousand of the 8 million who lost their lives to tobacco smoking are Nigerians.
One of the leaders of the group, Sadiq Shehu Abubakar laments over the increasing smoking amongst youth in the university.
Sadiq how stressed that to address the effects of tobacco, “management of higher institutions must provide a smoke free zones in the institutions”.
After Sadiq’s presentation, 20 guests and the leadership of the group were engaged in a campaign tagged “Paint the change” campaign, they were tasked to paint a free-smoking world.
The group agreed that to halt smoking in public places, the National Tobacco Act of 2015 and the National Tobacco Control Regulations of 2019 must be reinvigorated.
Also speaking, a champion in the campaign, Khadija Aliyu Ahmed revealed plans to pay an advocacy visit to the Kano State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure to advocate for “Smoke Zone” in ministries and parastatals.