The Government of Chad has adopted a draft decree to prevent tobacco industry interference in policy-making, in line with Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The Government of Chad has adopted a draft decree to prevent tobacco industry interference in policy-making, in line with Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The Union provided technical assistance to the Chadian government to draft this important piece of legislation, which will help to protect the people of Chad and its economy from the damage caused by tobacco.
Each year, more than 3,400 Chadian citizens are killed by tobacco-related diseases, and more than 5,000 children and 489,000 adults continue to use tobacco, according to 2016 data from the Tobacco Atlas. In Chad, tobacco use costs the government millions of US dollars in healthcare and lost productivity from tobacco-related diseases. An individual smoker in Chad who smokes 10 cigarettes per day from the leading brands will spend an average of 27% of their total income on tobacco products each year.
“Chad has made good progress in recent years on tobacco control laws, with the introduction of smokefree legislation, graphic health warnings and a ban on all tobacco advertising,” said Daouda Adam, Union Technical Adviser in the region. “However the introduction of Article 5.3 was vitally needed, because the tobacco industry is actively targeting African countries like Chad that offer untapped and youthful markets, relatively weak tobacco control laws and prime land for growing tobacco.”
The Union has supported tobacco control projects and activities in Chad since 2008, including providing capacity building support to key policy-makers and government staff, under the Bloomberg Initiative Grants Programme.
“I'm very pleased with this achievement because it will secure the progress already made by Chad on tobacco control,” said Dr Nenodji Mbairo, Union grantee and Coordinator of the national tobacco control programme at the Ministry of Public Health. “Article 5.3 was not included in the national tobacco control law adopted in 2010 – but now we have a tool, a weapon of protection for the law.”