By LUCY ANAYA

On February 14/02/2010, media reported a story whose headline was, ‘Farmers Petition State on Tobacco Legislation.’ This was a story that detailed on how farmers had

BY LUCY ANAYA

 IT is a fact that the Government of Kenya is currently grappling with economic crisis and hardly hit by tobacco related ailments and environmental degradation as a result of tobacco smoking

By Florence Wang' ombe

Maina is a heavy smoker who ‘has or smoke at least a packet of cigarettes(20 sticks)  a day. The thought of stopping the addiction has never crossed his mind. Maina's one-and-a-half-year-old son has had uncountable attacks of pneumonia since he was two months old. He escaped death by a whisker the last time. Maina only avoids smoking while holding the baby; that's as far as his understanding about baby's safety and smoking goes.

Many people wouldn't see a connection between the father's smoking habit and the baby's suffering.
But from smoking probably has everything to do with the baby's illness. Many parents who smoke don't see any harm in smoking in the house, in the presence of their children. But there is a greater danger that should be addressed urgently.
Research has established that the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is triple that of children of non-smokers if the mother smokes during pregnancy and doubles if the child is exposed after birth.
Ear infections, the common childhood affliction can be caused by second hand smoke. Up to 13 per cent of such infections can be attributed to passive smoking. The reason for this is: Breathing cigarette can be attributed to passive smoking and smoke lowers a child's resistance to certain viral and bacterial infections.
As many as 20 per cent of childhood cases of bronchitis and pneumonia are caused by passive smoking. It is also linked to impaired lung development which may make children even more susceptible to pulmonary diseases later in life.

Acute respiratory infections which are caused by tobacco smoking account for up to 35 per cent of children's hospital  admissions while pneumonia is the second most common cause of child mortality.
Inhaling second hand smoke at home increases the overall number of doctor visits for asthma by 13 per cent for patients. Exposure has been known to worsen existing cases of asthma and to trigger asthma in children who had not previously had symptoms of the illness. Over seven million people smoke regularly in South Africa while over three million suffer from asthma, reveals the Readers Digest. Dr Rodney Ehlich, senior specialist in the Department of Public Health at the University of Cape Town says in Cape Town area about 13,000 children get asthma each year from passive
smoking and 45 per cent of women in the highest rates in the world.
 

Lung cancer is another disease that second hand smoke causes, it has long been established. A recent
study at Harvard found that non¬smoking women exposed to second hand smoke doubled their risk of developing heart disease.
Many smokers and non-smokers-living with smokers who regularly expose them to second-hand smoke have no idea what this does to innocent children and any¬body who passively smokes the dangerous fumes. Many people, even non-smokers, do not see why smoking in public should be banned but research has now shown beyond any doubt that the smoke that we inhale from just being around a smoker whether we mind it or not causes enough danger to our health.
 
According to The Cigarette Papers, a confidential paper done for the Tobacco Institute "what the smoker does to himself may be his own business but what he does to the non-smoker is quite a different matter."
This leads one wonder why an innocent child should suffer because a father claims addiction to smoking or a neighbor especially in the overcrowded estates take the brunt of irresponsible behavior of another person who he happens to share a compound or flat with? This gives all reasons why smoking, if it has to be done at all, should be done in areas set aside for it and banned firmly from public places

Dr. Wilfred Machage, Assistant  Minister for Roads and MP, Kuria

“Being a medical doctor, I understand the health complications tobacco growing, manufacturing and smoking cause on humanity. I have seen people die in my constituency and still impoverished. There is a need for them to be sensitized to discard tobacco growing and find an alternative crop.   
 Tobacco farmers are harvesting large areas of forests yet the companies are putting very little efforts to plant new trees to protect the environment.”