MoH: Ghana To Receive Funding To Implement Tobacco Control Strategy

The Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has disclosed Ghana will receive financial support from the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the implementation of a comprehensive national tobacco control strategy.

This is because Ghana was selected as the Phase Three 2030 project country of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), he explained.

In addition to the funding, Ghana will receive technical support for the strategies, Agyeman-Manu stated.

According to him, Ghana has made significant improvements in the control of tobacco use.

Records from Tobacco Atlas stipulate that 6,700 Ghanaians die every year due to tobacco-related illness with 66% of these deaths in persons below 70 years.

Globally, tobacco kills 8 million people annually with more than 7 million of the deaths resulting from direct use.

Today marks 2022 “World No Tobacco Day” with the theme “Tobacco: Threat to our Environment”.

This year’s celebration focuses on the impact of the cultivation, production, distribution, and disposal of tobacco on the environment.

According to WHO, 4.5 trillion cigarette butts not safely disposed of across the globe annually generate 1.69 billion pounds of toxic waste and release thousands of chemicals into the air, water and soil.

“While many people believe cigarettes are biodegradable, most of the ingredients present in cigarettes are non-biodegradable and take years to break down. Also, when not safely disposed of, they release harmful chemicals into the environment”, Agyeman-Manu noted.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini