Smoking causes 6,000 deaths per year in Cote d’Ivoire

ABIDJAN: Smoking leads to more than 6,000 deaths annually in Cote d’Ivoire, according to the country’s major lawyer association.

The Deputy Secretary General of the Association of Women Lawyers of Cote d’Ivoire, Andosine Tomou De Touali, revealed the figures on Wednesday at an anti-smoking campaign initiated by the association in the political capital Yamoussoukro.

The association called for raising public awareness about the risks of all forms of smoking, including e-cigarettes, whose consumption is rapidly increasing among the youth, and strengthening anti-tobacco legislation in Cote d’Ivoire.

“Both active and passive smoking causes serious diseases, such as cancers, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as malformations in fetuses when smoking occurs during pregnancy,” said Oumar Coulibaly, deputy coordinator of the National Anti-Tobacco Program. He said efforts should be made to “prevent young people from ever starting to smoke.”

Despite the ban on smoking in public places in 2012 and the enactment of a tobacco-control law in 2019, smoking remains very popular among Ivorians. (Xinhua)