Future Smoking Epidemic Among African

A new report from the American Cancer Society claimed that Africa will face a severe health threat from the fast-growing increase in tobacco use. The report found that without aggressive intervention, the continent will experience a significant increase in smoking in the near future. 


In fact,  as a region, Africa has the smallest number of smokers and smallest rate of tobacco use in the world. Although the numbers are small for now, some economists warned these small numbers also provide the greatest for growth.

In Africa, the health systems are already very over-stretched because of infectious diseases like malaria and HIV.The increase in tobacco use will bring an increase among tobacco-related, smoking-related diseases.

Study found that African children smoke at comparable levels, and sometimes even higher than other developing regions of the world. The reason is unclear, but it must be leaded by the aggressive tactics from the tobacco industry itself.Moreover, children live in Africa are not protected well in the way that they are in places like the United States.

In countries such as South Africa and Mauritius which has very strict tobacco control policies, the smoking rate is decline.

In general, more needs to be done to educate African on the dangers of smoking.  The idea that smoking could cause the risk of disease and even death is almost not known in Africa, especially in rural areas. 

I personally think that education is the most critical solution to this problem. Education could raise the awareness of the harm of smoking among Africans. Awareness control one's action. Therefore, education is extremely important. Moreover, the control policies such as advertising bans, tax policies could also make efforts to prevent smoking.