Tobacco smoking, including second-hand smoke, is known to cause lung cancer, heart disease and other illnesses. It kills almost 6 million people a year, an average of one person every six seconds with the biggest rise in low- and middle-income countries. Over 44 000 people die each year from tobacco related diseases in South Africa.
"We aim to educate policy makers and the public about the tobacco industry's harmful and dark marketing tactics of promoting tobacco products in clandestine ways, enticing women and young people to become smokers," says CANSAs CEO, Sue Janse van Rensburg.
"We are aware that the past tobacco was made freely available and promoted at exclusive parties and we have evidence of specific brands promoting cigarettes in a supermarket as well as at a restaurant as recent as November 2011. Beautiful women are used to promote and even distribute free cigarettes in that environment; giving the impression that smoking is cool."
A big concern is that of hookah (hubbly-bubbly) smoking, which seems to be a popular pastime at parties with teenagers and students. While they may think it is safer than cigarettes, in fact it is deadly. Smoking one hookah pipe can give you as much nicotine as smoking 10 cigarettes even after the smoke has passed through the water; it still contains high levels of toxins including carbon monoxide and cancer causing chemicals.
Janse Van Rensburg adds, "It's up to all of us to fight the covert tactics of the tobacco industry and their agents and make the right choice in not supporting it in any way. Get to know the law around the Tobacco Control Act as you have the right to a smoke-free environment and we urge you to report any non-compliance to the Environmental Health Offices of the local municipalities."
The Tobacco Control Act restricts tobacco advertising, including viral marketing, which is a favoured approach to target young people. CANSA highlights the need for these laws to be leveraged to stop tobacco companies from marketing their harmful products to the public.
CANSA is helping people addicted to tobacco with its free eKick Butt programme, a unique online smoking cessation programme. Through a series of emails, surveys and downloads, smokers are guided and mentored as they quit smoking and non-smoking becomes a lifelong habit, not merely the time interval between two cigarettes. The programme supplies a series of handy tools - tried and tested - to help quit for good - www.ekickbutt.org.za.
