Youths as the main target
According to Evariste Ntaganda, the cardiovascular diseases officer at Rwanda Biomedical Centre, the government has done a lot to take some actions such as strengthening legislation promoting smoke free environments, health warnings on cigarette packages and increasing taxes on tobacco products.
“A lot of effort was directed at the very high burden in young people. When preventing the use of tobacco in such a generation, it means that we are putting more effort in controlling its use in future generations, which is our target,” he says.
The strategy, he explains, is also to target young people in different fora such as in schools, youth organisations and media, as well as open discussions, in order to present all this information and at the same time answer participants’ concerns.
Passive smokers suffer than real smokers
Francois Uwinkindi, the head of non-communicable diseases at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre, they are trying to control secondhand smoking, a move already supported by the law which prohibits public smoking.
According to WHO, 890,000 out of 1.3 billion smokers are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats. Globally, around 80 per cent of tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest.
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