AFRICA faces a surge in cancer deaths unless action is taken in the next decade to stem the rising smoking levels. The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that the continent will double its tobacco use within 12 years if current trends continue.

It is a pity that when many developed countries have tightened laws to make smoking unacceptable or illegal in public places, in developing countries it is the reverse.

In the last 40 years, according to the ACS, smoking rates have fallen in rich countries like the United States, Britain and Japan but have been rising in most of the developing world. Statistics show that smoking will kill six million people worldwide as early as 2010 and 72% of those will be from low and middle-income countries. Uganda is a poor country whose health sector is grossly inadequate.

The problem of smoking is more deadly today than it was three decades ago because of the advent of HIV/AIDS. Most smokers who are HIV-positive are sure candidates for tuberculosis infection. But passive smokers are put at graver risk.

According to the Uganda Heart Institute, respiratory diseases and lung cancer will be Uganda’s leading killer by 2020.

Lung cancer is closely associated with smoking and is on the increase because anti-smoking laws are very weak or non-existent in poor countries. In 2004, the then environment minister Kahinda Otafiire imposed a smoking ban in all public places. However, since the public places were not gazetted, its enforcement became problematic. Clearly, there is need to discourage smoking.

The starting point is to help tobacco growers switch to alternative crops. The law on public smoking must be vigorously enforced and non-smoking areas clearly demarcated. Cigarettes should be sold in packets and not as individual sticks to make its cost prohibitive.

Churches, mosques and schools should play a role in sensitising people about the danger of smoking. With concerted effort, the deadly menace of smoking can be tackled.