Some 300 million people are food insecure. Eight million deaths each year are due to tobacco. A priori, the two numbers have nothing to do. A priori only. On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, the WHO warns of the waste that tobacco cultivation represents: 3 million hectares used to make cigarettes while hunger is progressing in the world. A health, agricultural and even economic heresy.
With our correspondent in Geneva, Jeremiah Lance
If the percentage of surfaces dedicated to the cultivation of tobacco has tended to decrease for 15 years, this is not the case in Africa where it explodes, + 20% over the same period, and often in countries exposed to insecurity. food, like Malawi. The strategy of the tobacco groups is often the same, denounces Dr. Rudiger Krech, of the WHO: contractualize the farmers and force them to produce more and more to repay their debt.
“ Growing tobacco requires a lot of investment in seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, he explains. The tobacco groups advance this money to the farmers and the latter must reimburse them when they sell their production. It is a vicious circle, in which the peasants become dependent on the industrialists. If they grew something else, they would earn three times as much. »
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A drama for children
Unprofitable, tobacco growing is also dangerous for all those who work in the fields. ” 1.3 million children work in tobacco plantations, continues Dr. Rudiger Krech. You should know that when you work and breathe in the middle of tobacco fields, it’s as if you were smoking 50 cigarettes a day… It’s already terrible for an adult, so imagine for a child. »
With other agencies, including the World Food Programme, the WHO has launched a project to help farmers convert to more useful and more profitable productions; 5,000 farmers in Kenya and Zambia are expected to benefit.
Tobacco, the leading cause of preventable death in France, with some 75,000 deaths each year
Public Health France publishes this May 31 a survey on the latest estimates of the prevalence of smoking in France among adults aged 18 to 75. In 2022, France still has nearly 12 million daily smokers. Ihe number of smokers remains at a high level. In 2022, more than three out of ten French people smoked tobacco, a quarter of them smoked every day. Men smoke more than women, their own consumption is stabilizing, it had increased between 2019 and 2021 due to the health crisis.
Another finding, the most formidable, social inequalities in smoking continue to widen: the poorer one is and without a diploma, the more one smokes. Unsurprisingly and still according to the health-tobacco barometer, unemployed people smoke more cigarettes than working people. Another subject analyzed: vaping tends to increase, just over 40% of 18-75 year olds say they have tried electronic cigarettes. And they are 5% to vape every day. Finally, a result is considered encouraging by Public Health France, nearly six out of ten daily smokers want to quit. The authors of the survey insist on the fact that it is essential to strengthen policies to fight against smoking in France.
♦ Report in Mexico
In Mexico, a rather strict anti-smoking law came into force at the beginning of 2023. It prohibits smoking areas in public establishments, bars, restaurants, etc… even in the open air, including in certain busy streets, and prohibits any type of advertising or display of cigarette packets in stores. A law which hoped to participate in dissuading the 19 million Mexican smokers from continuing, but in fact, six months later, what is the balance sheet?
In fact, no drop in consumption is visible. And no sanctions were handed down. Tobacco continues to be sold and consumed unchecked in Mexico. According to Adriana Camarena, of the NGO Saludhable, the effects of these new measures are not up to par. “We now have a solid law that gives us tools and would allow us to have tobacco control for the good of the population in terms of reduction of diseases, prevalence of consumption by minors and number of deaths. But we are not far from having improved the figures, precisely because we are unable to implement these measures. On the legal level, the law is contested: Erick Ochoa denounces a fierce reaction from the tobacco industry and large chain stores that sell cigarettes. “They have presented an avalanche of procedures that attack two crucial points: the ban on the presentation of cigarette packets in points of sale and the other measure that they want to remove the ban on smoking in closed spaces. . Since January, 2,500 legal challenges have been filed, some of which resulted in a suspension of the law in the name of economic interests.
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