Public Health: Tobacco kills over 30,000 Nigerians yearly −WHO

*Walter Mulombo, Country Representative of the World Health Organisation, reveals more than 30,000 Nigerians die of tobacco-related diseases every year, describing tobacco as ‘a slow-ticking bomb’

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Walter Mulombo, Country Representative, World Health Organisation (WHO), has stated that over 30,000 Nigerians die of tobacco-related diseases annually.

ConsumerConnect learnt Mulombo noted this development this Tuesday, June 28, 2022, in Abuja, FCT, during the launch of the Nigeria Tobacco Control Data Initiative Dashboard by  Development Gateway, an IREX venture.

The event was organised in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, as part of activities to mark this year’s ‘World No Tobacco Day’.

The number, the WHO chief stated, outweighed that of deaths from COVID-19, which had killed 3,144 in Nigeria so far.

Mulombo described tobacco as a slow-ticking bomb.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Adeleke Mamora, Honourable Minister of State for Health, urged Nigerian consumers to avoid tobacco and exposure to second-hand smoke.

The Minister since June 1 this year, the government had commenced the implementation of a new three-year tobacco tax regime which would end in 2024.