Civil Society Legislative Center (CISLAC) has disclosed that the target of Tobacco Companies is to get our children into tobacco consumption.
The disclosure was made by Peter Unekwu-Ojo at a training organised by CISLAC for women journalists in Rivers State.
He said tobacco companies are now manufacturing tobacco in beautiful and attractive forms just to attract the younger generations adding that products like “I Quit Smoking” (IGS) that come in form of flash drives and beautiful ball pens are subtle ways of smoking that encourages more tobacco consumption than ordinary cigarette smoking.
Stressing on the need to control tobacco consumption especially with high taxation rates, he said tobacco companies are aware that cigarette smoking has become old fashioned and are continually devicing new strategies to make tobacco consumption more attractive to the digital generations who are “good market” for them.
He called on government at all levels to increase taxation on all Tobacco products in other to reduce the intake of tobacco in Nigeria which according to him has wrecked the lives of Nigerian youths.
He informed taxation of tobacco in Nigeria is at 16.4 percent while ECOWAS level of taxation is 59 percent, and WHO 75 percent adding that Nigeria’s low taxation rate is contributing to high tobacco consumption by the younger generations.
Mr Unekwu-Ojo who chronicled the dangers of tobacco on the environment, hinted that cigarette sticks stay undecomposed in the ground for over 15 years regretting the enormity of the dangerous impact of 4.5 trillion cigarettes annually littered on the ground worldwide has caused the environment
He informed that the training was meant for women whose advocacies as pillars in the home will go a long way in controlling tobacco use in our society hinting that tobacco smoking causes Cancer, cardiovascular diseases, ulcer amongst others.
It might interest you to know that every cigarette smoked stays in the brain for 7 hours and reduces the life span of the smoker by 11 minutes.
