Time to implement tobacco control law

Many Ugandans are ardent fans of Arsenal FC’s style of football and Barcelona’s attack-minded blend of soccer. Many analysts agree this has a lot to do with one man - Johan Cruyff. Arsene Wenger, Frank Rijkaard and Pep Guardiola have variously acknowledged being influenced by Cruyff’s football philosophy. The Dutchman had an illustrious stint with the Dutch national football team. He later coached Barcelona to unprecedented success and even has a striker’s dribbling manoeuvre named after him. The Cruyff turn is a scenario where a striker makes a swift 180 degrees turn away from a defender.

Cruyff would probably still be with us today to inspire more Arsenals and Barcelonas if it wasn’t for one tragic habit - cigarette smoking. He passed away about two months ago of lung cancer. Tobacco use is responsible for 90 per cent of all lung cancer deaths in men. Cruyff repeatedly admitted that cigarette smoking had a lot to with the cancer that finally claimed his life and a heart bypass operation he underwent when he was still a football coach. “Football gave me everything but tobacco almost took it all away,’’ said Cruyff when it seemed that he would beat the lung cancer. Later in life, he emerged as unlikely poster boy for tobacco control causes.

As we commemorate World No Tobacco Day tomorrow, it is an opportune moment to go beyond regurgitating the statistics of the victims of tobacco use to reflect on the human face of the tobacco epidemic and the one billion lives tobacco use is set to claim this century, unless action is taken.
The World Health Organisation has selected “plain packaging” as this year’s World No Tobacco Day theme. Australia led the world in implementing a plain tobacco packaging rule. This simply means if you buy a packet of cigarettes in Australia, you will not find the manufacturer’s colours and brand displayed on a cigarette packet as is the case in Uganda today.

The United Kingdom implemented the plain tobacco packaging rule this month with France and Ireland set to follow suit this year. Clearly, tobacco packaging is a form of advertising and research has determined that glossy cigarette brand packaging makes smoking seem attractive and induces demand, especially among impressionable young people.
Last year, the Parliament of Uganda passed a tobacco control law, which was assented to by President Museveni. The Tobacco Control Act (2015) bans tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. The law provides for increasing the size of health warnings on tobacco packaging to provide for messages such as “Smoking harms your health and those around you’’ complete with graphic images illustrating tobacco-associated illnesses such as throat cancer.

As widely reported in the media recently, Uganda’s tobacco control law came into force on May 19. At this year’s World No Tobacco Day in Kampala, a ceremony has been organised to mark the coming into force of the law. It was reported that some members of the police said they need sensitisation on enforcing the law and several trainings have been lined up for this purpose.

The Ministry of Health and partners are in the process of passing regulations to give full effect to the tobacco control law to save Ugandans. In Kenya, passage of a tobacco control law was greeted with a barrage of law suits and in Uganda, the industry is expected to follow a similar template. Cruyff would not approve of such moves. His story is testimony to lives the law seeks to protect in the first place.

Mr Zakumumpa works with Makerere University and was a J2J Lung Health Fellow of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. [email protected]