ACCORDING to Malaysia's 2020 report to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an estimated 4.8 million people in Malaysia currently smoke. To put things into perspective, 21.3 per cent of those aged 15 and above are smokers. That makes up one in five Malaysians. The 2019 National Health and Morbidity survey also showed that more...
Smoking damages blood circulation in many ways, leading to a host of related health problems including heart disease, heart attack and stroke. It may also affect the penis. Erectile dysfunction (ED) is defined as the persistent inability to attain and maintain an erection sufficient enough to permit satisfactory sexual performance. For some men, erectile dysfunction can...
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 8 – A recent report by the National Taxpayers Association says the Ministry of Health’s programmes involved in tobacco control are grossly underfunded, which means they cannot effectively fight the vice. According to the study, the Tobacco Control Board and Division of Noncommunicable diseases (NCD), are consistently underfunded. The survey showed that the...
In 2009, Mrs. Margaret Kwaada Julius, a 47-year-old grandmother became a tobacco advocate by chance. Stumbling on the information that, “tobacco kills half its users’’ further reinforced her resolve to dedicate quality time to sensitizing people on the harmful effects of the deadly substance on health and the environment. Presently she says, “I am a...
A voter-approved ban on flavored tobacco in Washington County has yet to go into effect after a judge issued an injunction on it Tuesday, saying the county wasn’t prepared to enforce it anyway. County health officials say that’s not exactly the case. But they concede they’ll have to allow sales of the kid-friendly cancer-causing flavored...
Research is pointing to growing tobacco use in Africa while the reverse is true elsewhere. This is as worrying as it’s perplexing, considering the sustained anti-tobacco use campaigns carried out on the continent by lobbies. In a University of Chicago report, researchers who created a Tobacco Atlas after surveying 63 countries say there are more than a...
The group said BBNaija season 6 sparked public outrage when its participants flagrantly smoked on live television. Some Non-Governmental Organisations have called on the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to regulate Big Brother Naija (BBN) Season Seven, a popular reality television programme, to become smoke-free. The Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said this on...
A report released by the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) yesterday (June 20) has exposed how social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are now used to flout Nigeria’s National Tobacco Control Act and its Regulations. The report detailed how companies like British American Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris International Nigeria Limited (PMINL)...
Tobacco diseases kill an estimated 30,000 Nigerians yearly despite government initiatives and the Tobacco Monitoring Dashboard collecting data on tobacco control and disease prevalence to help curtail its use. World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative Walter Molumbo expressed concern that non-communicable diseases are overtaking communicable diseases in the number of deaths they cause in Nigeria. “Close...
When we visited a 45-year-old Michael Okong’o at his rural home in Gogo village, West Kanyamkago Ward, Uriri Sub-county of Migori County, the healthy green crops were all we could see. One could hardly tell of the poor climatic condition of the area, with most lands surrounded with rock boulders. Okong’o’s home, sits at the boundary...
