Two million non-smoking Kenyans exposed to second hand smoke at home and work

NAIROBI: Two million non-smoking Kenyans are exposed to life-threatening second hand smoking at home.

Another 691,880 adult Kenyans are at risk at work.

Averagely, a smoker in Kenya spends Sh1,072 on cigarettes per month with those in the age bracket of 15-24 years spending twice as much money at Sh2,008 per month.

These are some of the findings of the Global Adult Tobacco (GATS) Survey-Kenya Report launched on Tuesday by the Ministry of Health.

The survey also found out that three million adults in Kenya are exposed to tobacco smoke at home. Out of the number, more adults totalling to two million in rural areas are exposed to tobacco smoke compared to one million in urban areas. While releasing the findings, Health Cabinet Secretary Dr Cleopa Mailu said the a total of 429,100 employed adult male non-smokers are exposed to SHS at work compared to 207,900 adult female non-smokers. Interestingly, more adults with formal education are affected than those with no formal education. "Out of the 691,800 exposed to SHS at work, 260,800 are adults with secondary education or above as compared to 60,700 with no formal education," Mailu said.

The SHS exposure by sex was noted to be consistently higher for males as compared to femalse in public places with remarkable differences seen in bars and night clubs, where SHS exposure for males at 24.5 per cent is five times higher than females at four per cent.

Overall, those who visited bars and night clubs had a very high SHS exposure of 86 per cent, 10 times more than the exposure in health care facilities at 8.5 per cent.

Though the average expenditure by smokers on cigarettes is Sh1,072 per month, average monthly expenditures on cigarettes by age shows big differences.

On average, the age group pf 15-24 years spent twice as much (Sh2,008) per month on cigarettes than those aged 25-44 who spend Sh983 per month and Sh951 for the 45-64 age bracket.

According to the survey, smokers in rural areas are likely to spend more money (Sh1,225) on cigarettes per month than their urban counterparts who spend Sh786 per month.

Smokers with no formal education spend on average Sh1,321 per month while those with less than primary education spend Sh1,146 and those with only primary education spend Sh1,059. Those with secondary education and above spend Sh928 on average per month.

The survey also found out that 2.5 million adults in Kenya currently used tobacco (smoking and smokeless tobacco) while 1.7 million currently smoked tobacco and a million use smokeless tobacco.

Overall, six per cent of adults are daily smokers, 1.8 per cent occasional tobacco users and 92.2 per cent are non-smokers. About 41. 3 per cent of current smokers initiated smoking between 20-24 years of age, while 32.3 per cent initiated between 17-19 years, 13.5 per cent between 15-16 years while 7.5 per cent initiated smoking when they were less than 15 years. The survey also found out that 72 per cent of daily tobacco users use tobacco within 30 minutes of waking up.

Overall, 43.2 per cent of daily smokers use tobacco in less than five minutes of waking up and 28.7 per cent use within six to 30 minutes upon waking up.

More female tobacco users take use a shorter time to use their first tobacco after waking up compared to males as 90.7 per cent would use tobacco within one hour of waking up compared to 85.4 per cent of males.

The average number of cigarette sticks smoked per day per smoker is 9.3 sticks. Some of the recommendations made to make smokers quit include health promotion and communication strategies to help increase knowledge and raise awareness of tobacco and second hand smoke. Others include enforcing smoke-free laws particularly in social and work environments and laws prohibiting sale by the stick and increasing tobacco taxes and prices.