Smoking kids

As the National Quit and Win campaign 2002 is yielding positive results among adults, the sad twist is that more kids are taking to tobacco use in schools.

A recent survey on smoking from the various first cycle schools showed that 14.3 per cent of Junior Secondary School (JSS) students have tried smoking cigarettes, 19.5% currently use tobacco products, 4.9% currently smoke cigarettes, 19.3% usually smoke at home and 46.1% buy cigarettes in a store.

The survey published by the Ghana Health Survey revealed that 21.9 percent of JSS students live in homes where others smoke, 39.9 per cent are around others who smoke in places outside their homes, 57.2 per cent think smoking should be banned from public places, 26.1 percent have one or more parents who smoke, while 6 percent have most or all friends who smoke.

With regard to media and advertising exposure as much as 39.1 percent saw a lot of procigareete smoking media messages, 18.6 percent have an object with cigarette brand logo and 5.2 percent were offered free cigarettes by a tobacco producing company.

"The above youth related statistics are indeed alarming and underscore Ghana's commitment and determination to join the 2002 International Quit and Win Campaign", says the survey.

Equally disturbing is the rate at which kids are watching porno via the Internet. Some of these kids are so smart that they have obtained addresses of websites of porno all over the world, and after classes they dash to the nearest Internet Caf? to watch nude pictures on the Internet.

The survey results indicate that kids are increasingly being influenced by various factors, chief among which are parental and peer influence. The results also show the extent to which the media, especially radio and television are exposing the youth to bad habits. This raises fresh questions about the ethics in advertising, if there are any at all in the country.

The careless manner in which drugs and other harmful substances are churned out from our electronic media houses is alarming. Last week when Weekend Agenda contacted the Executive Secretary of Advertisers Association of Ghana, Francis Dadzie to comment of advertising in the country he said there are ethical rules that govern advertising.

He said the association only regulates companies and individuals registered with them. That leaves advertisers who are not registered with the association to advertise their product anyhow.

At the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Juliet Danso Ankrah of the Advert Vetting Department said they first check with the Standards Board to ascertain the quality of the products then check for content and language. If the content and language meet their rules the products are passed for broadcast.

Quite recently the Director General of Ghana Health Services Dr. Agyeman Badu Akosah led a campaign to compel Brotish America Tobacco to remove a huge cigarette advert on the Kaneshie Market Complex. In the view of Dr. Akosah, the market is strategically located the advert had the potential to expose more kids to smoking.

In May this year the Ghana Health Service carried the fight to tobacco companies by joining the International Quit and Win. Quit and Win is an international smoking cessation programme designed to encourage people to stop smoking with the aid of a positive incentive.

The International campaign against smoking is co-ordinated and evaluated by the National Public Health Institute, KTL in Finland. In Ghana the programme is being hosted by the Ghana Health Services (GHS) with the support of World Health Organization.

Last Saturday, 14 September the Ghana Health Services in collaboration with WHO, Coca Cola and Westel rewarded a number of people who quit smoking recently.

In all a total of 1020 smokers registered to be part of the competition to quit smoking, of which 25 persons were drawn for various prizes. They were taken through a test to find out if they had really abstained from smoking. Saviour Hadjah, a fourth year student of the University of Ghana, Legon took away ?5 million as the first prize.

The second and third received ?3 million and ?1 million each while the fourth placed took ?100,000. Saviour Hadjah, in an interview told Weekend Agenda that he had been smoking for two years before taking the bold decision to quit. He took to smoking as a result of peer pressure.'

Edith K. Wellington, Senior Research Officer of the GHS said that as part of the programme, a one-year counselling session would be organised as a follow up to help the quitters live up to the challenge of a total break from smoking. She said this was the first time Ghana had participated in this international programme and the next competition is in the year 2004 since the programme is held every two years.