T*****o k***s over eight million people annually, WHO

As the world marks No T*****o Day on Friday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged countries and stakeholders to increase action to protect people from exposure to t*****o.

WHO also encouraged parents and community leaders to take steps to safeguard the health of their families and communities by informing them of and protecting them from the harms caused by t*****o.

Statistically, over 40 percent of all t*****o related d****s are from lung d******s like c****r, chronic respiratory d******s and tuberculosis.

“Every year, t*****o k***s at least eight million people. Millions more live with lung c****r, tuberculosis, asthma or chronic lung d*****e caused by t*****o,” noted WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Healthy lungs are essential to living a healthy life. Today and everyday you can protect your lungs and those of your friends and family by saying no to t*****o,” he added.

About 3.3 million users and people exposed to second-hand smoke d**d in 2017. Of this, 1.5 million people d**d from chronic respiratory d******s, 1.2 d**d from tracheal, bronchus and lung c****r while 600,000 d**d from respiratory i********s and tuberculosis.

{ Read: BAT feels the heat over t*********n }

More than 60 000 children aged under 5 d*e of lower respiratory i********s caused by second-hand smoke. Those who live on into adulthood are more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary d*****e (COPD) later in life.

Countries have been encouraged to fight the t*****o epidemic through full implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on T*****o Control (WHO FCTC) and enforcing effective t*****o control actions.

Locally, the government has intensified fight against the use of t*****o by imposing high taxes and introducing laws that ban the sale of loose c*******e sticks and public advertising of the products.

However, despite the strict measures, the success is gradually with about 2.2 million people actively use t*****o products with its two-thirds s*****g cigarettes.

S*****g cigarettes is reported to be the main cause of lung c****r and highly contribute to heart d*****e and strokes.

Kenya is a major producer of both raw t*****o and manufactured t*****o products with about 35,000 farmers producing t*****o leaf.

{ See Also: T*****o farmers earn lowest in 3 years }

The farming mainly occurs in Nyanza and Western province with some activities in Central and Eastern provinces.

Further, the country’s British American T*****o (BAT) company dominates about 71.5 percent of the manufactured t*****o products.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2014 report, t*****o accounts for 7 percent of Kenya’s GDP, contributing approximately Sh10.2 billion in tax revenues to the Government.