We are particularly attracted to the various evidence-backed points that Anton Oliver made in his contribution to the on-going discussion about smoking and its innumerable harms to human health and wellbeing, social and economic existence. In particular, we concur with his remark about the ‘the elephant in the room: if e-cigarettes were indeed a quit-smoking revolution, then why would the tobacco industry go to lengths in North America and elsewhere to promote these products to teens? Are they not being marketed to feed the tobacco industry’s profit margin, instead?
And to that very important point, we add that the world needs to beware of ‘Tobacco industry’s targeting of women in LMICs who have lower rates of smoking than men particularly in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, is similar to the industry’s targeting of women in HIC in the 1920s, linking smoking to women’s social and economic freedoms (Smith DR,Leggat PA. An international review of tobacco smoking in the medicalprofession: 1974–2004. BMC public health. 2007;7:115–26. pmid:17578582).
Vaping or whatever terminology is used to describe it, should not be promoted to children, adolescents, non smokers as a quit-smoking means. Better to focus and direct resources to promoting abstinence from smoking in all its forms.
Joseph Ana
HIFA profile: Joseph Ana is the Lead Senior Fellow/Medical Consultant at the Centre for Clinical Governance Research and Patient Safety in Calabar, Nigeria, established by HRI Global (former HRIWA). He is a member of the World Health Organisation’s Technical Advisory Group on Integrated Care in primary, emergency, operative, and critical care (TAG-IC2). As the Cross River State Commissioner for Health, he led the introduction of the Homegrown Quality Tool, the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance Programme, in Nigeria (2004-2008). For sustainability, he established the Department of Clinical Governance, Servicom & e-health in the Cross River State Ministry of Health, Nigeria. His main interest is in whole health sector and system strengthening in Lower, Low and Middle Income Countries (LLMICs). He has written six books on the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance programme, suitable for LLMICs, including the TOOLS for Implementation. He served as Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association’s Standing Committee on Clinical Governance (2012-2022), and he won the Nigeria Medical Association’s Award of Excellence on three consecutive occasions for the innovation. He served as Chairman, Quality & Performance, of the Technical Working Group for the implementation of the Nigeria Health Act 2014. He is member, National Tertiary Health Institutions Standards Committee of the Federal Ministry of Health. He is the pioneer Secretary General/Trustee-Director of the NMF (Nigerian Medical Forum) which took the BMJ to West Africa in 1995. Joseph is a member of the HIFA Steering Group and the HIFA working group on Community Health Workers. (http://www.hifa.org/support/members/joseph-0 http://www.hifa.org/people/steering-group). Email: info AT hri-global.org and jneana AT yahoo.co.uk
