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Kenyan and other African medics have today issued an urgent call through the African Harm Reduction Alliance (AHRA) to international delegates attending the World Health Organisation’s 9th conference on tobacco control, this month, to move to prevent the deaths of millions of smokers by supporting safer alternatives.
The African call comes as the number of smokers continues to rise in Africa and in Kenya, according to the Tobacco Atlas.
Named by Kenya’s Ministry of Health as the country’s top cause of preventable deaths in 2017, smoking is causing over 8,000 deaths a year, with 18,000 children and 2.1m adults using tobacco every day, generating healthcare and economic costs of almost Sh3bn a year, according to the atlas. Yet Kenya has banned the safer alternatives that most smokers in developed countries have now moved to.
The Kenyan appeal comes in support of a letter written by 100 independent experts in tobacco and nicotine science and policy to delegates due to attend the WHO’s tobacco summit. The group has called on the WHO to modernise its approach to safer alternatives, such as e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, and incorporate effective tobacco harm reduction into the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
AHRA has today written its own letter in support of the group, joining the call for delegates to the FCTC’s Ninth Conference of Parties (COP9) to adopt a “questioning and assertive approach” to WHO’s tobacco policies and a WHO policy analysis that assesses scientifically the benefits and risks of smoke-free products.
Speaking at a joint webinar with Campaign for Safer Alternatives, AHRA’s CEO, Dr Delon Human, says: “Scientific evidence shows that vaping and nicotine pouches are much less harmful than cigarettes and they can offer smokers their best chance of quitting a lethal habit.
“Public health policies should acknowledge that these potential lifesavers would have a hugely positive impact in low- and middle-income countries, where 90% of deaths for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) occur.”
President of AHRA, Dr Kgosi Letlape, says: “AHRA is urging COP9 delegates and the WHO to pay particular consideration to the plight of Africa, where smoking rates are stagnating or increasing in defiance of global trends.
“Smokers on the continent are desperate for safer alternatives, which are being over-regulated or over-taxed out of their reach. The real issue is combustion of tobacco, which causes most of the harm. We need evidence-based decision-making and believe adoption of harm reduction policies and (non-combustible) products in Africa would help prevent 146,000 tobacco-related deaths every year.”