2023-06-01 11:45:09
Tobacco kills more than 8 million people every year
World Day : Smoking is a real public health problem in Morocco. The prevalence is 13.4% in adults over the age of 18 and 6% in students aged 13 to 15.
Morocco, like other countries in the world, celebrated World No Tobacco Day on Wednesday, May 31. This day is an opportunity to highlight the dangers associated with tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke. Smoking is a real public health problem. According to data from the Ministry of Health and Social Protection available, the prevalence of smoking is 13.4% among adults over the age of 18, including 26.9% of men and 0.4% of women. Among pupils aged 13 to 15, it is 6%.
About 35.6% of the population is exposed to passive smoking in public and professional places. In addition, smoking is the cause of several diseases, including cardiovascular disease, lung cancer or bronchial cancer. According to the results of the evaluation of the epidemiological and economic impact of smoking in Morocco carried out in 2021, tobacco in Morocco was responsible in 2019 for 74,000 prevalent cases of ischemic heart disease, 4,227 new annual cases of lung cancer. Mortality attributed to tobacco in 2019 was 12,800 premature deaths. The annual economic cost of tobacco in Morocco amounts to more than 5 billion dirhams in 2019, representing 8.5% of total health expenditure (SDR) and 0.45% of GDP. It is divided between the direct medical cost (60.9%), that of mortality (33.0%) and the loss of productivity linked to morbidity (6.1%). The results of an epidemiological survey of the prevalence of risk factors for non-communicable diseases carried out by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the WHO revealed that the average age of onset of tobacco consumption was 19 years (18, 9 years for men versus 23.4 years for women). The survey also specified that daily smokers smoked an average of 13.2 cigarettes per day.
WHO urges governments to stop subsidizing tobacco growing
This year, the World Health Organization has chosen the theme of this world day “Grow Food, Not Tobacco”, in order to raise awareness among tobacco growers of the various possibilities of producing and marketing alternative crops and encourage them to opt for sustainable and nutritious crops. This WHO campaign encourages governments to end tobacco growing subsidies and use the savings to help farmers switch to more sustainable crops that improve food security and nutrition. It is also a question through this campaign of sensitizing communities of tobacco growers to the advantages of abandoning this culture in favor of sustainable crops.
It is also regarding exposing efforts by industry to hinder the pursuit of sustainable livelihoods. The intensification of tobacco cultivation in Africa is a serious threat to food and nutrition security. Available data reveals that while the area devoted to tobacco cultivation decreased by 15.7% globally, it increased by 3.4% in Africa between 2012 and 2018. During this period, although tobacco leaf production fell by 13.9% globally, it increased by 10.6% in Africa. In recent years, tobacco cultivation has increased in Africa due to the existence of a more favorable regulatory framework for the activities of the tobacco industry and the increase in demand for tobacco. It should be recalled that in a report published on May 31, 2022 entitled “Tobacco: a poison for our planet”, the WHO revealed that each year, the tobacco industry is responsible for more than 8 million deaths, the destruction of 600 million trees, 200,000 hectares of land, the loss of 22 billion tons of water and the emission of 84 million tons of CO2.
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