Read articles from Africa

August 03, 2023 by theconversation.com

Throughout the world, governments impose excise taxes on products like alcohol and tobacco to reduce their demand. The South African government has implemented a tax on vaping products for the same reason. Reducing demand is necessary as there is growing evidence that vaping products are not harmless. The new vaping tax has enraged vaping lobby groups and vaping manufacturers. The vaping industry argues that e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes. It also claims that the tax will spawn an illicit industry, that people will go back to smoking traditional cigarettes, and the tax will not dissuade the youth from starting vaping.

July 20, 2023 by kbc.co.ke

Now misinformation about alternative nicotine products, such as vapes and nicotine pouches, also threatens to result in unnecessary premature deaths. Fortunately, by acknowledging the overwhelming scientific evidence that shows the lifesaving potential of these products, we can make informed decisions to shape a healthier future for those adults who wish to quit smoking. Much of the misperception problem in Kenya lies in conflating tobacco and nicotine. Far too many people regard them as one and the same. Yet reputable scientists widely acknowledge that most of the harm associated with conventional cigarettes is caused by the toxicants in the smoke produced by the burning of tobacco. [...]

July 17, 2023 by iol.co.za

South Africa is home to 11 million tobacco smokers, with 41% attempting to quit in the past 12 months. Studies show that most people who smoke relapse within eight days after a quit attempt and only 3%-5% of self-quitters are still smoke-free a year later.

September 21, 2022 by filtermag.org

“By global comparisons, smoking prevalence is relatively low across the continent of Africa,” the author, THR Malawi founder Chimwemwe Ngoma, writes. “Yet by 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) projects the total number of tobacco users in Africa will increase to 62 [million], of whom 51 [million] will be smoking combustible tobacco. The opportunities to reduce the burden of non-communicable disease, suffering and premature deaths presented by tobacco harm reduction (THR) are therefore huge. [...]

May 18, 2022 by reuters.com

Smoking rates have declined globally for the first time on record, according to a new report on tobacco use from a public health campaign group and U.S. academics. However, the figures from the Tobacco Atlas report – described as a potential tipping point by the authors – also mask growing numbers of smokers in parts of the world, as well as increased tobacco use among young teenagers in almost half of the countries surveyed.

Globally, there are 1.1 billion smokers and 200 million more people who use other tobacco products, the report from Vital Strategies and the Tobacconomics team at the University of Illinois at Chicago found.

April 21, 2021 by environewsnigeria.com

Despite effort by Africa in achieving some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reducing tobacco use has proved the hardest to deliver. Reducing tobacco use plays a major role in global efforts to achieve the SDG target to reduce premature deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by one-third by 2030. Significant disparities in health outcomes around the world are driven by unequal access to essential health products. Scientific advances have led to the creation of new nicotine delivery products that have saved millions of lives. [...] 

April 13, 2021 by sokodirectory.com

FAR TOO many Africans die as a result of smoking. Yet far too few Africans who try to stop smoking actually succeed in doing so. It’s clear that the ‘quit or die’ approach to tobacco control is not working on our continent, where cigarette consumption is on the rise in stark defiance of global trends.

Evidence shows that alternative nicotine products, such as tobacco-free pouches and e-cigarettes or vaping devices, can deliver nicotine with dramatically reduced risk compared to traditional ‘combustible’ cigarettes.

August 07, 2020 by monitor.co.ug

Economists and leading international Tobacco Harm Reduction experts, drawn from Africa and Europe, have advised smokers in Uganda to turn to oral nicotine products saying it is least 90 per cent safer than smoking. Nicotine pouches are white pre-portioned pouches containing nicotine but no tobacco, and are described as either similar to or a tobacco-free version of snus. Mr Atakan Befrits, a Sweden-based Tobacco Harm Reduction policy advocacy [...] said: “This figure is “most likely closer to 99 per cent when you account for the food grade standard to which some of the latest products are produced.”

March 17, 2020 by capitalfm.co.ke

Debate is raging globally around smoke-free alternatives, such as e-cigarettes, which are being presented by tobacco companies as safer options for smokers. On one hand, cigarette manufacturers offer these alternatives as less risky, scientifically cleared substitutes with potential to cut well-documented health effects of consuming tobacco and nicotine. On the other hand, anti-tobacco activists favour a campaign that advocates for total cessation. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the safest approach is to use neither conventional nor e-cigarettes.

February 04, 2020 by theconversation.com

Opinions differ on how to regulate electronic cigarettes. But dozens of countries are taking action. In Africa, Kenya already taxes these products, and South Africa is preparing to follow. E-cigarettes don’t contain tobacco, which has harmful health effects. But they often contain highly addictive nicotine and have their own negative health risks. [...] E-cigarettes are unregulated in the country, yet their marketing and sale is proliferating on online platforms. This suggests that the number of e-cigarette consumers in South Africa is likely to grow in line with global trends.