The Tobacco Industry Must Pay for the Harm they cause to Human Lives and the Environment

Re: The Intergenerational Responsibility of the Tobacco Industry

The Vision for Alternative Development (VALD GHANA) together with our partners in public health on the occasion of International Youth Day 2022, seek for Intergenerational solidarity to create a safe and tobacco-free World for All Ages. 

The tobacco industry imposes continuing irreparable harms on the youth and even future generations by maximizing on its economic power to influence governments and tobacco control policies by lobbying, manipulating the media and discrediting scientific research in order to propagate the sale and distribution of its deadly product.  

This harmful industry knows that an overwhelming majority of smokers begin to smoke while still in their teens and are highly vulnerable to the effects of the powerful addictive nicotine, hence their deliberate trend of strategically recruiting “replacement smokers” so as to continuously stay in business by rebranding tobacco into an attractive, flavored and glamorous product with the introduction of shisha and e-cigarettes. 

Although Ghana has come a long way in the fight against tobacco by prohibiting all forms of tobacco advertisements, the passage of the Tobacco Control Measures and the adoption of the Tobacco Control Regulations in 2012 and 2016 respectively; Research by the Ghana Health Service indicates that most of the country’s youth are engaging in e-cigarettes and shisha use. Revealing that the rate of smoking shisha and e-cigarettes among young people has shot up to 5.3 percent, higher than the traditional use of tobacco which stands at 2.8 percent. 

The Economics of Tobacco Control/Taxation in Ghana” a research facilitated by VALD Ghana also revealed that, the youth and women especially are now getting hooked on to flavored tobacco/cigarettes and shisha because of its appealing fragrance. 

The tobacco industry has through diverse means thwart effective tobacco control measures and have rather caved for themselves, a pleasant and responsible image in the eyes of the populace through their guised Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and philanthropic actives. Meanwhile, the main objective behind these human nature is to increase their standing in these communities and attract new talents. With its corporate influence on government actors, the profit driven tobacco industry holds the future of the next generation at a ransom, thus we condemn the actions of the industry and those representing its interests and call for justice.  

We demand actions from governments, regulatory bodies, communities, and from the tobacco industry; to protect the young adults, the children and future generations from the enduring addiction deceptively peddled to get them addicted to nicotine and its lifelong struggle with their mental health and well-being. Tobacco provide no benefit to humankind, instead causes deaths, addiction and environmental harm. 

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Director-General of the WHO, described tobacco use as “a communicated disease—communicated through marketing”. Explaining that the spread of tobacco use especially among young people and women in developing countries are the latest targets of tobacco industry marketing. Adding that Scrutinizing, countering and eliminating their activities will decrease the disease burden of tobacco use.

It is time for stringent legislation and actions to hold the tobacco industry responsible for the harm they cause to health, the economy, and the environment. Tobacco taxation has been recommended by WHO as an effective means to curb consumption especially among the youth, improve health outcomes and provide a sustainable revenue for governments’ health financing. Hence, there is the need for Ghana like other countries like Kenya, Gambia etc. to change the current tax regime from the ad valorem to a mixture of ad valorem and specific excise taxation on tobacco.  

A company that kills 8 million people a year, leaving many with chronic conditions has no social value. VALD Ghana and its partners in health wish to reiterate that, the so-called CSR activities such as Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing (ECLT) is just a false notion to divert attention from the actual harm their products pose. Their CSR initiatives are of no good as their products. 

The irreconcilable fundamental conflict of interest between the tobacco industry and public health including the health of future generations, can only be decided by policies adopted in this generation. A sustainable future devoid of the tobacco industry and its interference is all we seek; the time to make them pay for the harm they cause to human lives and the environment is now.  

Labram Musah

Executive Director of Programs: Vision for Alternative Development

labrammusah@valdghana.org

0243211854

For more information and interviews contact

Ophelia Allotey 

Communications Officer 

Vision for Alternative Development –VALD Ghana

Ophelia.shika@gmail.com 

0545058124