Foundation Urges Youths To Stop Tobacco Smoking

The Nigerian Heart Foundation (NHF) on Monday called on Nigerian youths to stop tobacco smoking in all its forms for healthy living.
The Director, Tobacco Committee, NHF, Dr Oluwakemi Odukoya made the call at a virtual meeting to commemorate the 2021 World No Tobacco Day in Lagos.
She advocated strong tobacco cessation policies, saying that the campaign was in order to reduce the diseases and deaths caused by tobacco consumption.
Odukoya, an Associate Professor of Public Health, Department of Community Health and Primary Care, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, urged policy and decision makers to create an environment which would allow cessation of tobacco use.
According to him, “The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing more than 8 million people a year around the world.
“More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
“Tobacco-related ailments account for substantial healthcare and economic costs. We want to let current smokers know that help exists and that they can stop smoking as millions of smokers have stopped worldwide.
“We need to keep raising the awareness, particularly among young people.”
The director urged all stakeholders to do everything they could to prevent young people from starting to use tobacco while efforts were geared towards increasing access to cessation services, awareness and empowerment of tobacco users.