The Society of Family Physicians of Ghana (SOFPOG) has appealed passionately to government to quickly increase taxes on tobacco to prevent the populace, especially the youth, from using the harmful substance.

They observed with gross worry that most of the youth in the country were resorting to the use of tobacco, which poses great health risk to them and the people around them.

Dr Gerhardt Ofori-Amankwa, Vice President of SOFPOG, who made the statement, indicated that increase in taxes on tobacco would eventually lead to increase in prices of cigarettes, thereby making it expensive for people to buy and smoke.

He was addressing scores of people, including medical doctors and nurses, during the celebration of ‘The World Family Doctors Day’ which was held at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi on Thursday.
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Under the theme: ‘Smoking Cessation’, the day was used mainly to educate the public about the serious health dangers that tobacco caused to the human body and how the people could live healthy lifestyles.

Dr Ofori-Amankwa charged the government to ensure the “full implementation of the WHO Framework Control on Tobacco Control, including the 6 MPOWER measures, including the monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies.”

According to him, “The framework also includes the protection of people from tobacco use, offering help to people to quit tobacco use and warning the populace about the dangers of tobacco.”

“It also touches on enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and raising taxes on tobacco,” he mentioned, adding that medical practitioners also ought to educate their patients about the dangers of tobacco so that they would abstain from it.

The organisers—SOFPOG, World Organisation of National Colleges, Academia and Academic Association of Family Physicians (WONCA) —used the occasion to organise a free health screening for the public.