Ten million Kenyans at risk of lung cancer
Revellers enjoy music while smoking shisha during the event at the Carnivore Grounds, Nairobi. Tobacco firms will be required to display on cigarette packs health warnings on the effects of smoking. PHOTO | GERALD ANDERSON | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Exposure to the lit end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar or exhaled smoke mainly occurs in bars or nightclubs.
- Another three million are exposed to tobacco smoke at home.
- The survey says some Kenyans are so addicted to tobacco they inhale it within 30 minutes of waking up.
- The World Lung Foundation says if a person smokes 10 cigarettes a day, “he sees the pack health warning 3,650 times a year.”
Nearly 10 million Kenyan non-smokers are exposed to second-hand tobacco putting them at risk of lung, bronchittis and trachea cancers .
Exposure to the lit end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar or exhaled smoke mainly occurs in bars or nightclubs, exposing nearly 3.1 million Kenyans, according to the first national global adult tobacco survey.
Another three million are exposed to tobacco smoke at home, nearly 2.1 million others in restaurants, about 700,000 at their places of work while half a million get exposed to it in universities.
The survey was released on Monday and says while nearly nine in 10 Kenyans know smoking causes serious illnesses such as cancer and heart attack about 2.5 million Kenyan adults — mainly men— either smoke or chew and sniff tobacco including the smokeless type which is believed to cause cancers of the mouth, oesophagus and pancreas.
The survey says some Kenyans are so addicted to tobacco they inhale it within 30 minutes of waking up.
The average smoker spends about Sh1,072 each month on cigarettes — a cost the Medical Services director Jack Kioko described as “unsustainable”
“This is about 10 packets of cigarettes, that has at least 20 cigarette sticks a pack, at a cost of Sh102, more expensive than a packet of maize flour,” he said at the launch of the survey.
According to the study carried out in 2014, Kenyans in rural areas are likely to be habitual tobacco smokers compared to those in urban areas.
More than half of Kenyan smokers, according to Dr Kioko, started smoking before the age of 20 and almost all started before the age of 25.
However, five in 10 smokers tried to ditch the habit in the past 12 months of the study due to to health warnings on cigarette packs.
The World Lung Foundation says if a person smokes 10 cigarettes a day, “he sees the pack health warning 3,650 times a year.”
According to the ministry, global evidence shows that graphic health warnings are effective in encouraging smokers to quit and deterring youth from starting.
However over time, the effectiveness of the warnings wanes.
