Tobacco smoking claims the lives of more than 8,000 Kenyans every year, according to the Tobacco Control Study released by the Ministry of Health earlier this year. Yet, Kenya is lagging in embracing the latest scientifically evidenced innovative and sustainable methods on how to help smokers quit.

Non-evidence-based policymaking and misinformation are considered some of the biggest obstacles to cutting tobacco smoking deaths and disease in the coming years by adoption of innovative tobacco harm reduction strategies, a message that was repeatedly driven home by international experts at the recent Global Tobacco Nicotine Forum (GTNF) in London.

Over the course of two days, speakers from all over the globe, including two African physicians, Dr Delon Human and Dr Kgosi Letlape, called on governments to lead with science in the fight against tobacco, much as they have with the use of vaccines in the battle against Covid-19.

Unfortunately, in Kenya, the push to put out the smokers’ light is not on track. Despite having an active tobacco-control programme, our smoking rates remain stubbornly high, with the same study by the Ministry of Health showing that approximately three million people continue to smoke tobacco every day.

By comparison, the countries that are having the biggest success in reducing smoking rates are doing so by focusing on innovative harm-reduction interventions and actively helping smokers to quit using science-backed alternatives. In 2018, the Ministry of Health spearheaded harm reduction interventions as part of the larger Universal Health Care (UHC) agenda by hosting the Eastern Africa Harm Reduction Conference.

However, there is slow adoption of readily available less harmful alternatives, such as e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches.

Source: Business Daily