Monday 27 November 2017

Tobacco hurts more than your lungs – it damages the communities that grow it

Eleanor Jew

The Kipembawe Division is hidden in the southern highlands of south-west Tanzania, a long seven-hour drive north from the city of Mbeya.

The scenery is stunning, yet when you look closer you can see that tobacco plants dominate agricultural areas, and the sound of trees being felled is a constant background noise. Just the word “tobacco” conjures up vivid imagery of death and disease, as depicted on graphic cigarette packets and through hard-hitting anti-smoking campaigns.

But tobacco’s impact starts long before it is found wrapped in a cigarette, and affects many more people than the estimated one billion smokers worldwide. Tobacco also impacts the health and well-being of the people who grow it and the environment where it is grown, often with devastating consequences.

My colleagues and I have recently published research demonstrating just how damaging it can be to the environment and communities in rural Tanzania. Most villages in Kipembawe don’t have electricity or mobile phone coverage.

There are minimal healthcare facilities, and water is obtained from wells and rivers. There are few crops people can grow to make money and the dominant one is tobacco, farmed by 86 per cent of the 196 households we surveyed. In Tanzania, 47 per cent of the population lives below the international poverty line and rural poverty rates are even higher, where most people are reliant on agriculture.

In Africa, tobacco cultivation is often associated with the presence of a dry tropical woodland called “miombo”, which dominates Kipembawe.

Miombo woodland covers over 2.4m km² in Africa, but is undergoing rapid deforestation and degradation throughout its range. Both tobacco and miombo trees like sandy, slightly acidic soils. Unfortunately, these soils don’t contain many nutrients, and tobacco is one of the most nutrient-hungry crops there is.

This means farmers must clear more woodland almost every year to create new fields, because the land can only support one or two cropping cycles. For tobacco leaves to be preserved for transportation and further processing they must be dried or cured. This places another burden on the trees, which are used for fuel. In total, approximately 4,134 hectares of woodland are cleared annually within Kipembawe. This reduces biodiversity and the benefits the local environment can provide people, including carbon storage, firewood, building materials and fresh water.

Risks to farmers
But woodland clearance is just the start of the process. Throughout the growing season, farmers apply several rounds of fertiliser and pesticides to the crop, yet few farmers understand the risks associated with their use. During our time in Kipembawe, we didn’t see anyone using protective clothing or equipment, exposing farmers, families and labourers to harmful chemicals.

What’s more, despite regulations that aim to reduce the impact of fertilisers on water sources, the crops are often initially grown close to rivers so that the distance to carry water is shorter. This means the only source of drinking water for livestock can become contaminated, causing conflict between livestock keepers and tobacco farmers.

Tobacco companies 'use pricing tactics to keep smokers hooked'
Child labour within tobacco growing is a also well-known issue, and the main tobacco organisations have joined the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation. But we saw children working in the fields, and evidence from primary schools indicates that children are likely to start working on their parents’ fields from around the age of 13.

While this has obvious consequences for their education, there are also severe health impacts. Green tobacco sickness is a form of nicotine poisoning that occurs when the tobacco leaves are wet and contact the skin. Nicotine is absorbed through the skin, and leads to fever, vomiting and dizziness. While it rarely results in death it can be extremely frightening to children, who are more susceptible to severe symptoms due to a lack of nicotine tolerance and smaller body size.

Little other choice
So why do farmers grow tobacco? Many people have few alternative ways to make a living and farmers can get a good price for top quality tobacco. This money can significantly improve the lives of the farmers, enabling them to pay school fees, invest in other businesses, and afford bicycles and solar electricity.

Some men spend their money during the weeks after harvest drinking in the local pubs and pop-up bars which emerge. Canny women brew home beer from maize, and make a roaring trade. But prostitutes also flock to the area around this time, raising the risk of STI transmission. HIV rates in Mbeya are the third highest in the country, with nine per cent of 15-49 year olds testing positive for HIV – four per cent higher than the national average.

Despite the 2005 World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and falling smoking rates, global population growth means total tobacco use looks likely to keep rising in the foreseeable future. But in Kipembawe, the deforestation associated with tobacco cultivation will ultimately make production unviable because there will be no fuel left to cure the crop.

This will leave the community without a significant source of income and a degraded environment. If people had other ways to make their living, it would help reduce the social and environmental burdens of tobacco production, but opportunities are limited. Tobacco production could be made more sustainable using alternative drying methods, reforestation, more efficient use of fertilisers and pesticides and land use management plans.
But extensive training and support is needed, and child labour must be eliminated. All of this will be difficult while there is such great demand for tobacco. So next time you think about lighting up, remember it’s not just your health at risk. Kicking the habit could save both trees and children’s chances.

Eleanor Jew is a researcher in conservation and agriculture at the University of Leeds. 

Source: Independent

This article originally appeared in The Conversation (theconversation.com)

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Thursday 16 November 2017

Train Children to Say NO to Tobacco






















Parents and teachers have a major role in equipping children to say no to tobacco, said ace violinist Balabhaskar here on Children’s Day, marking the launch of the social media campaign #SayNO2Tobacco.

The campaign #SayNo2Tobacco aims to protect children from tobacco use initiation by training them to say a bold No, and thereby create tobacco free schools and colleges in Kerala.

“I have never smoked or used tobacco in life, nor do I intend to. We need creative ways and responses to help children say no to tobacco and this is what the campaign aims at,” the youth icon noted.

The well-known composer also launched a jingle in Malayalam encouraging children to say no to tobacco. The jingle composed by Balabhaskar has been written by Joy Thamalam and rendered by artists Amritha, Prarthana and Janaki.

Dr AS Pradeep Kumar, Advisor, Tobacco Free Kerala spoke about how important it is to stop children from initiating tobacco use. “Only 2-4 per cent of smokers have been able to voluntarily stop smoking.  Parents should emulate a culture of not giving in to all demands made by children. In due course of time, this will help children also to say no to tobacco.”

“Easy availability of tobacco products near schools and colleges; peer influence and promotions through cinema are all temptations for the young to start use of tobacco products,” added Dr Pradeep, who is also the Senior Research Officer, Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies of Sree Chitra Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology here.

As part of this campaign, Tobacco Free Kerala requests teachers, parents, doctors, students and all concerned citizens to share opinions and thoughts on ‘How and When Children should Say NO to Tobacco’. The campaign is also a platform to share experiences on ‘How and When You Said NO to Tobacco’.

S Jayaraj, State Coordinator, Tobacco Free Kerala welcomed the gathering. Students from Paadashala – an after-school child care in Trivandrum also participated in the event.  

Here's how you can participate in this campaign







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Wednesday 1 November 2017

Govt proposes regular scrutiny to enforce curbs on tobacco sale

In a blatant violation of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003, vendors are openly selling tobacco products to minors within a radius of 100 yards of educational institutions in the national capital. After a program evaluation under the National Tobacco Control Program (NTCP), the ministry of health and family welfare has now proposed regular scrutiny for compliance of the act across the country.

A study of randomly selected 100 educational institutions was conducted December 2015 in Delhi by the epidemiology division, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), National Tobacco Control Program, Directorate General Health Services (DGHS), ministry of health and family welfare along and World Health Organization (WHO).

Activities related to Section 6 of COTPA around educational institutions, such as the sale of tobacco products within a radius of 100 yards, sale of tobacco products to and by minors, and existence of display boards prohibiting sale of tobacco products were observed using Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled tablet computers preloaded with maps and Open Data Kit software.

“We accessed compliance of Section 6 of COTPA around educational institutions in Delhi. Among the 100 educational institutions surveyed (53 government, 47 private), tobacco products were sold at 43 outlets within a radius of 100 yards of 27 educational institutions. No outlet had a display board prohibiting sale of tobacco products to minors,” said Rajesh Yadav from NCDC.

“One outlet sold tobacco products to minors during the period of observation, but sale of tobacco products by minors was not observed. Only 38% of educational institutions displayed board prohibiting tobacco sales; private educational institutions were significantly less likely to display signs prohibiting tobacco sales than government educational institutions,” he said.

The study has also been published in the latest issue of International Journal of Preventive Medicine. Although COTPA (2003) and the NTCP have been in existence for many years, health ministry officials said studies from around the country have shown poor compliance of laws for tobacco control in previous years.

Studies in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Bihar reported sale of tobacco products within a radius of 100 yards to be in 46%, 57%, 50%, 65%, and 62% of educational institutions, respectively, in 2012-2013. Non-existence of the statutory display boards prohibiting sale of tobacco products outside schools in the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, and Bihar was reported in 78%, 98%, 82%, 71%, and 93% of educational institutions, respectively, in 2012-2013.

“Similar periodic surveys are required to enable regulatory agencies to enforce COTPA in letter and spirit to control tobacco use,” Yadav said.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease and premature deaths globally and in India. Tobacco related diseases account for an estimated 6 million deaths globally and 0.8-0.9 million deaths in India each year. The Global Adult Tobacco Survey, India (2009), shows that nearly 35% of adults use tobacco, and the average age at initiation of daily tobacco use is 17.9 years.

Source: Livemint
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