1. Posted on Sunday 22 November 2009 - 17:15

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   Emeruwa

   

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   Victor Emeruwa, AfricaNews reporter in Lagos, Nigeria

   Togo is considering a bill to ban smoking in public. The Ministry of Health of the West African country said tobacco related deaths in the country has reached alarming proportions and it is about time it saves its citizens. Smoking prevalence in the tiny country is 31.3% and civil society organizations are helping to save the situation.

   

   A representative of the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Sadjo-Hetsi Dzrevon said: “Tobacco has killed a lot of people in Togo that is why the ministry of health is concerned and working with NGOs to stop this dangerous trend”.
   
   The National Alliance of Consumers and Environment of Togo said in a document: “Tobacco consumption is spreading more and more, especially among the youth. The tobacco industry is increasingly directing its harmful advertising toward young people by sponsoring youth oriented cultural activities. Even though the state has banned tobacco advertising in public and private media, the advertising still exists in many forms in Togo.”
   
   At the moment there is an ongoing legislative process on tobacco control which is expected to culminate into a national legal document that will support the promotion and implementation of the framework convention on tobacco control.
   
   “If these documents are adopted by the legislators it will strengthen existing structures on the ground and also provide a more reliable data on tobacco control in the country.
   
   “Before now we have no consistent data on Tobacco control, with this situational analysis document, we now have a document that we can rely on, we now have a guide that will help us to work on policies. The document is very important for stakeholders working on tobacco control issues in Togo,” Dr. told AfricaNews reporter in Lome.
   
   He said: “At the ministry of health we are happy that there is now a reference document that will guide legislation and necessary action on tobacco control.”

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Reactions

1. Posted on Sunday 22 November 2009 21:16

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   harleyrider1978

   

   
   1 berichten
   Lid sinds November 2009

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   SECOND HAND SMOKE IS A JOKE. Ask the anti-tobacco folks to tell you what truly is in second hand smoke...when it burns from the coal its oxygenated and everything is burned and turned into water vapor..................thats right water..........you ever burned leaves in the fall...know how the heavy smoke bellows off.......thats the organic material releasing the moisture in the leaves the greener the leaves/organic material the more smoke thats made......thats why second hand smoke is classified as a class 3 irritant by osha and epa as of 2006........after that time EPA decided to change the listing of shs as a carcinogen for political reasons.......because it contained a trace amount of 6 chemicals so small even sophisticated scientific equipment can hardly detect it ........they didnt however use the normal dose makes the poison computation when they made this political decision. However osha still maintains shs/ets as an irritant only and maintains the dose makes the poison position.......as osha is in charge of indoor air quality its decisions are based on science not political agendas as epa's is. We can see this is true after a federal judge threw out the epa's study on shs as junk science......... Wednesday, March 12, 2008 British Medical Journal & WHO conclude secondhand smoke "health hazard" claims are greatly exaggerated The BMJ published report at:
   
   http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7398/1057
   
   concludes that "The results do not support a causal relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality. The association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and lung cancer are considerably weaker than generally believed." What makes this study so significant is that it took place over a 39 year period, and studied the results of non-smokers who lived with smokers.....
   
   
   meaning these non-smokers were exposed to secondhand smoke up to 24 hours per day; 365 days per year for 39 years. And there was still no relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality. In light of the damage to business, jobs, and the economy from smoking bans the BMJ report should be revisited by lawmakers as a reference tool and justification to repeal the now unnecessary and very damaging smoking ban laws. Also significant is the World Health Organization (WHO) study:
   
   
   Passive smoking doesn't cause cancer-official By Victoria Macdonald, Health Correspondent " The results are consistent with their being no additional risk for a person living or working with a smoker and could be consistent with passive smoke having a protective effect against lung cancer. The summary, seen by The Telegraph, also states: 'There was no association between lung cancer risk and ETS exposure during childhood.' " And if lawmakers need additional real world data to further highlight the need to eliminate these onerous and arbitrary laws, air quality testing by Johns Hopkins University proves that secondhand smoke is up to 25,000 times SAFER than occupational (OSHA) workplace regulations.
   
   The Chemistry of Secondary Smoke About 94% of secondary smoke is composed of water vapor and ordinary air with a slight excess of carbon dioxide. Another 3 % is carbon monoxide. The last 3 % contains the rest of the 4,000 or so chemicals supposedly to be found in smoke… but found, obviously, in very small quantities if at all.This is because most of the assumed chemicals have never actually been found in secondhand smoke. (1989 Report of the Surgeon General p. 80). Most of these chemicals can only be found in quantities measured in nanograms, picograms and femtograms. Many cannot even be detected in these amounts: their presence is simply theorized rather than measured. To bring those quantities into a real world perspective, take a saltshaker and shake out a few grains of salt. A single grain of that salt will weigh in the ballpark of 100 million picograms! (Allen Blackman. Chemistry Magazine 10/08/01). - (Excerpted from "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains" with permission of the author.)
   
   
   The Myth of the Smoking Ban ‘Miracle’ Restrictions on smoking around the world are claimed to have had a dramatic effect on heart attack rates. It's not true. http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7451/
   
   
   As for secondhand smoke in the air, OSHA has stated outright that: "Field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that under normal conditions, the components in tobacco smoke are diluted below existing Permissible Exposure Levels (PELS.) as referenced in the Air Contaminant Standard (29 CFR 1910.1000)...It would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that any individual PEL would be exceeded." -Letter From Greg Watchman, Acting Sec'y, OSHA, To Leroy J Pletten, PHD, July 8, 1997
   -harleyrider1978

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