An expert at the Delta State Ministry of Health has expressed concern over the rising death toll among tobacco users in Nigeria, calling for heightened awareness and urgent action to address the epidemic.

Speaking with The Guardian in Asaba, the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Programme Coordinator, Dr Rita Opene, stated, “Tobacco use remains a leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide.”

Opene, who also serves as the State Youth Coordinator for the Nigerian Cancer Society (NCS), cited World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics, revealing that tobacco kills over seven million people annually. She highlighted findings from the 2012 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), which reported that 5.6 per cent (4.7 million) of Nigerian adults aged 15 years or older use tobacco products.

“Disaggregated by sex, this translates to 10.0 per cent (4.2 million) of men and 1.1 per cent (0.5 million) of women. Overall, 3.9 per cent (3.1 million) of adults (7.3 per cent of men and 0.4 per cent of women) currently smoke tobacco, and 3.7 per cent (3.1 million) of adults (7.2 per cent of men and 0.3 per cent of women) currently smoke cigarettes,” she said.

Opene added that 2.9 per cent of adults (2.4 million) are daily smokers (5.6 per cent of men and 0.3 per cent of women), while 0.9 per cent (0.8 million) are occasional smokers (1.8 per cent of men and 0.1 per cent of women).

She lamented the growing use of newer tobacco and nicotine products, particularly among adolescents and young adults from middle- to high-income backgrounds. These products include heated tobacco products (HTPs), water pipe tobacco (shisha or hookah), nicotine pouches, and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) such as e-cigarettes, e-cigarillos, e-cigars, and e-pipes.

“ENDS are devices that heat a liquid containing nicotine, flavourings, and other chemicals to create an aerosol inhaled by the user,” Opene explained. “These new and emerging tobacco and nicotine products are addictive, harmful, and lack evidence to support their use as smoking cessation tools.”

Opene further linked tobacco use to severe health problems, including lung cancer, which accounts for approximately 80 per cent of all lung cancer deaths, and heart disease, which damages the cardiovascular system and increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular conditions.