World Health Organisation (WHO) is today campaigning against tobacco, which is Zimbabwe’s second most exported product after precious metal due to the health challenges the gold leaf has been causing around the world.
The campaign is to observe the World No Tobacco Day done every year on 31 May.
“For World No Tobacco Day 2018, WHO has joined with the World Heart Federation to highlight the link between tobacco and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) – the world’s leading causes of death, responsible for 44% of all NCD deaths, or 17.9 million deaths annually,” WHO says in a press release.
“Tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure are major causes of cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks and stroke, contributing to approximately 3 million deaths per year. But evidence reveals a serious lack of knowledge of the multiple health risks associated with tobacco.”
WHO states that while many people are aware that tobacco use increases the risk of cancer, there are alarming gaps in knowledge of the heart disease risks of the golden leaf use.
“Most people know that using tobacco causes cancer and lung disease, but many people aren’t aware that tobacco also causes heart disease and stroke–the world’s leading killers,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General in a press release.
“This World No Tobacco Day, WHO is drawing attention to the fact that tobacco doesn’t just cause cancer, it quite literally breaks hearts.”
The golden leaf kills over 7 million people each year according to WHO’s Global Report on Trends in Prevalence of Tobacco Smoking 2000-2025.
Zimbabwe, which witnessed the number of tobacco registered farmers growing by 199 percent in the 2017/18 cropping season earned $827,4 million from 166,6 million kilogrammes (kg) of tobacco last year.
The country has already grossed $398,4 million from 137,3 million kg of tobacco that have been delivered this year gaining more than $50 million on revenue as compared to the same period in 2017.
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