More than eight (8) million lives are globally lost yearly to tobacco smoking, a professor of Anatomy at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Gabriel Olaiya Omotoso has revealed.
Prof Omotoso also identified tobacco smoking as a leading cause of preventable death and disease worldwide.
The anatomy professor, who made the revelation while delivering the 259th inaugural lecture of the university, also disclosed that 1.25 billion people are users of tobacco, adding that 80 per cent of these come from low and middle-income countries.
The don, in the inaugural lecture, titled, “White Matter Matters in the Search for Phytochemical Candidates for Demyelinating Disorders”, posited that out of the 8 million deaths recorded from tobacco usage annually, 1.3 million are from non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke.
Omotoso lamented that “despite a great deal of health education and awareness on the grave implications of cigarette smoking, many people are still caught in the web of the habit, pointing out that in Nigeria for instance, 10 per cent of the population smoke tobacco daily”.
He identified some adverse consequences of cigarette smoking on different organs of the body as including its adverse effects on male gonads and reproduction/fertility, adding that passive cigarette smoke also detrimentally affects adult brains.
To curb the menace of cigarette smoke, Omotoso stressed “the need for all of us to arise and protect our children from the tobacco industry interference”.
He also called on the government to enforce tobacco production laws in the country, stressing the need for the government to “take a cue from other countries, such as New Zealand, United Kingdom and Australia to effect this”.
Noting the urgent need of public enlightenment to educate the society about the harmful effect of cigarette smoking, Omotoso underscored the need to improve access to diagnostic tools to mitigate the challenge of disease diagnosis in the country.
Pointing out that “tobacco smoking, whether actively or passively, is deadly”, the don said it should be avoided like a plague.
He specifically advised pregnant women or women planning to have pregnancy to avoid tobacco exposure.
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