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Press Room

First National Tobacco Control Mass Media Campaign Launches in The Gambia

Note: World Lung Foundation united with The Union North America. From January 2016, the combined organization is known as “Vital Strategies.”

(Banjul, The Gambia and New York, USA) –– Today marks the launch of the first-ever national mass media campaign to warn people of The Gambia about tobacco’s harms. Developed by the Non Communicable Disease Control Programme, Ministry of Health & Social Welfare and World Lung Foundation, the campaign graphically depicts tobacco’s impact on smokers and non-smokers exposed to tobacco smoke.

The campaign, which includes a spot called ‘Cigarettes Are Eating You Alive’ and a radio spot called “Coughing Child,” will air on radio and billboards in all regions of the country for eight weeks. It is designed to provide citizens with new knowledge, and to spur them to support recent tobacco control policies, including smoke-free places and an increase in tobacco taxes. Such measures have been shown to reduce smoking, a leading cause of heart disease, lung disease, stroke and cancer.

The health risk associated with cigarette smoking and the use of tobacco in general is a worrying situation for The Gambia. An average adult Gambian male age 25-64 years smoke about 10 sticks of cigarettes per day. Every Gambian has the responsibility to implement “A Smoke Free The Gambia” Campaign. The Ministry of Health & Social Welfare, through its Non Communicable Disease control programme, under the Directorate of Health Promotion & Education, will rally behind the “A Smoke Free The Gambia” campaign.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of mortality in the world today, responsible for more than five million deaths each year – one in ten adults worldwide. Approximately 15 percent of adults in The Gambia use tobacco. Mass media campaigns are part of the WHO’s package of MPOWER strategies to reduce tobacco consumption and are detailed in Article 12 of the international tobacco control treaty known as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). These tobacco control strategies are endorsed and promoted by the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, of which World Lung Foundation is a principal partner. Additional support comes from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.