Alcohol, tobacco ‘are death traps’

Dar es Salaam. The habits of smoking and excessive consumption of alcohol are considered by health experts as among the most dangerous lifestyle inclinations.

The experts argue that such lifestyle habits cause many heath problems including development of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), especially cancers.

Discussion on these habits were done during the Mwananchi Thought Leadership forum held last Thursday in Dar es Salaam.

The forum brought together health stakeholders including experts from the health sector who reiterated to Tanzanians to make efforts to reduce harmful cigarette and alcohol consumption in a bid to avoid being victims of NCDs.

The experts cited the two behaviours as the main causes of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary, chronic bronchitis and high blood pressure among others. They emphasized that these habits have so far killed many.

In efforts to mitigate NCDs, WHO Country Representative in Tanzania, Adiele Onyeze who was one of the participants at the forum themed ‘Our Health, Our Lifestyle’, said that the major causes to diseases such as respiratory and diabetes were tobacco use and harmful alcohol consumption and noted the need to continue accelerating efforts to change the habits.

As he emphasised on focusing our strategies on preventing NCDs such as respiratory diseases, he said, “Progress to curb these diseases is being made but as we can all observe, the progress is very slow and we need to accelerate it in Tanzania and the world at large.”

The representative also commended the forum as it brought together different people with ideas that will eventually contribute in the battle against NCDs in the country.

At the same event, the chairman of the Tanzania Diabetes Association, Prof Andrew Swai stressed on the need for people to stop burning their livers due to destructive usage of cigarettes and alcohol.

“We are of the opinion that alcohol should be used moderately, because excessive usage increases a person’s chance of getting diseases such as high blood pressure,” he explained.

Dr Faraja Chiwanga, an endocrinologist at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) said that for the battle to be fully settled there was need for various sectors such as agriculture and infrastructure to also be involved in this movement to help control NCDs in the country.

“If we decide to formulate the law that prohibits smoking cigarettes in public areas, it is obvious that agriculture will be touched as far as tobacco farmers are concerned and when we talk about physical fitness as the way, also infrastructural sector comes in. This is why we need better strategies to help our people from being threatened by these diseases,” she said.

The expert further said that education to create mass awareness was one of the strategies that were missing among most Tanzanians in learning about the dangers and the way in which they can avoid being the victims of NCDs.

“We should also direct our efforts towards spreading education to our people so that they can be knowledgeable about NCDs and emphasis also needs to be made on regular check-ups for early detection of diseases so as to identify ways to tackle them,” she noted.

Meanwhile, the Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu also highlighted that people should reduce consumption of alcohol and cigarette smoking to help the country implement the ministry’s goal of ensuring there is universal health cover for all.

“As the ministry, we will work on the recommendations given in the forum and I urge Tanzanians to take action to stop excessive alcohol and cigarette use, and instead engage in various exercises including control their sugar and salt intake,” she said in a brief interview post-event. She also assured that her ministry was working towards implementing its plan to increase the size of precaution messages on alcohol and cigarettes products for users to take action.

“We are working to ensure that the size of precaution messages on alcohol bottles and cigarette boxes are increased to at least 30 per cent from the current size so that all users can clearly see and read,” she noted.