Tag: Botswana

  • Botswana Awarded for Tobacco Control

    Botswana Awarded for Tobacco Control

    Photo: sezerozger

    Botswana received an integrity award from the World Health Organization for reaching a milestone in its tobacco control efforts, reports Xinhua News.

    The award was given at the 10th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which is being held in Panama Feb. 5 to Feb. 10.

    “The award was in specific recognition of Botswana’s efforts to safeguard public health by ensuring that there was no undue influence or pressure from the tobacco industry, in any of its public health policy formulation or implementation processes, in line with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC),” said Christopher Nyanga, Botswana’s health ministry spokesperson.

    Botswana’s Tobacco Control Act strictly prohibits any form of contributions or corporate social responsibility initiatives from the tobacco industry.

  • Botswana Tops Regional Smoking League

    Botswana Tops Regional Smoking League

    Photo: Michael Siebert from Pixabay

    Botswana has among the highest adult tobacco use rates in sub-Saharan Africa, a recent report shows.
     
    About 240,000 of the country’s adults aged 15 years or older used tobacco, representing a tobacco use rate of 17.6 percent, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS). This tobacco use rate is the highest of any country in the region that has carried out a GATS survey. The report shows 82.2 percent of adults purchased single cigarettes, which are more affordable than packs for consumers with low incomes.
     
    According to the GATS report, 12.2 percent of adults who worked indoors were exposed to tobacco smoke in enclosed areas at their workplace, and nearly two in three adults were exposed to secondhand smoke in bars or nightclubs.
     
    Anti-tobacco groups urged the government of Botswana to reject tobacco industry interference in health policy and to pass legislation to exclude tobacco companies and their allies from the policy process.
     
    “Tobacco companies like British American Tobacco Botswana actively lobby to weaken life-saving tobacco control laws because they know such policies have been widely proven to work,” said Bintou Camara, director of Africa programs at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “The company also promotes its deadly business in Botswana through partnerships with retailers and other businesses under the guise of empowering small and medium enterprises.”

  • Botswana is smoking

    Botswana is smoking

    Botswana has a higher incidence of tobacco smoking than other highly-populated African countries such as Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, according to a Xinhua News Agency story quoting a senior official.
    At an event marking World No Tobacco Day in Francistown, Botswana’s second largest city, the Permanent Secretary of Botswana’s Ministry of Health and Wellness, Ruth Maphorisa, said the incidence of tobacco use, at 17.6 percent, was ‘severe’.
    It was the highest rate among all the African countries that were involved in the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) last year, which included Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda.
    Maphorisa was quoted as saying that, according to last year’s GATS survey, 82.2 percent of tobacco users in Botswana bought single cigarettes, which made them affordable and easily accessible.
    At the same time, the average per-person monthly expenditure on tobacco was estimated to be US$79.50, an amount that was almost twice the country’s minimum wage – US$40.00.
    Finally, Maphorisa said second-hand smoke was more dangerous than was active smoking.