Categories
· Teen Smoking/Youth
· Tobacco Control
non-USA, by Country
· Nigeria
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Jump to full article: VOANews.com (Voice of America), 2009-08-16
Author: Gilbert da Costa
Intro: The Nigerian parliament is currently debating sweeping new tobacco control legislation in a bid to break the growing tobacco addiction in the country. The bill has strong backing from anti-tobacco groups and health organizations.
"Change starts from now. I dare to be different. I will remain smoke-free. I am the future, and the future starts now, So help me God. I am smoke free!!!," recite students at Shepherd Secondary School in Ketu in Lagos.
Students of the Shepherd Secondary School in Ketu, a poor neighborhood in Nigeria's sprawling city of Lagos, recite a "no-smoking pledge" at the end of a two-hour anti-tobacco lecture. The program is part of a grassroots initiative by anti-tobacco campaigners to counter growing cigarette smoking, particularly among teens in Nigeria.
About 25 percent of Nigerian teens, some as young as 10, are hooked on tobacco, double the smoking rate among men.
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