Rabat – Despite a decline among younger generations, smoking remains prominent across Morocco, with recent studies showing that nearly a quarter of men in the country are regular smokers.
The economic and health cost of tobacco have been well-documented for decades. Lung cancer is the most well-known side effect of smoking, but its economic cost and manufacturing circumstances have also come under the spotlight lately.
There remains one major issue, however, that despite efforts remains endemic according to many in the country: secondhand smoke.
Moroccan outlet TelQuel reported earlier this month on a law proposal making its way through the country’s legislative branch to crack down further on the practice, but many are left wondering if any stricter rules could be enforced.
Effects on non-smokers
“There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS); even brief exposure can cause immediate harm,” the site of the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) says, leaving no room for question over the effect of tobacco on non-smokers.
Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 known chemicals, including at least 40 that have been shown to cause cancer among other fatal diseases.
The exposure to these chemicals in the form of smoke from cigarettes’ burning tips or the smoke exhaled by nearby smokers can cause immediate harm to the body, studies have shown, with some cases seeing inflammatory and respiratory effects within an hour of exposure.
The World Health Organization estimated in 2020 that over 1 billion smokers worldwide had contributed to the deaths of nearly 900,000 non-smokers through secondhand smoke-related effects.
Indeed, the effects can be devastating. Inhaling cigarette smoke has been linked to heart disease and lung cancer among non-smokers, causing tens of thousands of premature deaths every year.
Non-smoking adults who are exposed to cigarette smoke can increase their risk of having a stroke by 20 to 30%, the CDC estimates.
But while lung cancer and heart disease are the most well-known consequences, the practice carries consequences to another significant and highly vulnerable population: women and children.
Smoking among women is seemingly no longer a rare sight and smoking among middle school and high school aged children remains a major public health concern, but those two demographics are still vastly surpassed by adult men in tobacco consumption.
A 2022 report by Sunergia showed that only 1% of Morocco’s female population are smokers, for example.
But pregnant women exposed to second-hand smoke can expect an increased likelihood of lower birth weight as well as health and birth complications.
Children can also develop severe asthma, ear infections, and stunted lung growth if exposed to secondhand smoke, most notably from smoking parents.
Perhaps most devastatingly, smoking around infants can heighten the risk of sudden infant death syndrome: the sudden unexplained death of an infant in the first year of life.
Laws in place
With all these effects in mind, it would be safe to assume that Morocco has laws in place not only to limit the practice of smoking in general, but to specifically protect non-smokers.
Indeed, law 15-91 was enacted in 1995, and hoped to crack down on smoking in public spaces as well as setting guidelines for how tobacco products can be marketed and presented.
Alongside forcing manufacturers to include health disclaimers on their packets and banning advertisements for tobacco products, the law outlined a number of public spaces where smoking would be prohibited.
These included public administrative offices for both public and private institutions, hospitals and all other health-providing institutions, and public transport with the exception of dedicated smoking areas.
It also prohibited smoking in theaters, cinemas, and other entertainment spaces, as well as conference halls and classrooms in educational institutes.
Article 5 of the law adds that the government can decide to ban smoking in other public spaces as it sees fit in the interest of public health.
Indeed, 2008 saw Morocco’s parliament unanimously approve the banning of smoking in establishments like coffee shops and restaurants.
Article 11 adds that violators of the public smoking bans would be subject to fines of 10 to 50 dirhams.
The problem? A lack of enforcement and insufficient punishments, anti-smoking advocates say.
Critics say that several of the 1995 law’s articles are not enforced, and have criticized what they see as a lack of political will to deal with the problem.
The WHO’s 2021 tobacco profile on Morocco, for instance, classifies the country’s efforts to create smoke-free environments and cessation programs as only “minimal.”
Additionally, it finds that the affordability of cigarettes had not changed since 2010, and that WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control had not been ratified in the country despite being signed in 2004.
It remains to be seen what steps Morocco will take in order to combat the phenomenon, as it becomes more pressing in various sectors.
A study by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection in 2022 showed that the economic cost of tobacco use in Morocco exceeded MAD 5 billion ($490 million).
Europe’s example
Many point to Europe as an example of successful anti-smoking laws.
Despite the controversial nature of smoking bans among European populations with a penchant for nicotine, some countries such as Ireland and Spain managed to enforce complete bans on smoking in all public spaces in all enclosed public spaces and workplaces, with only a few exceptions made in dedicated smoking areas.
The Irish Office of Tobacco Control reported 95% compliance with the policy in 2005, only a year after its anti-smoking measures were introduced. Aside from the potential public health benefits, non-smokers also reported greater levels of comfort in public spaces away from the smell of cigarettes.
Reports from places such as Scotland also showed that commercial institutions such as bars and restaurants did not lose in the way of business. Results even showed that people are willing to give up smoking in public, especially with the proven health risks and the fact that a large number of smokers want to quit.
Many still posit that it would be difficult for Morocco to effectively enforce the bans it currently has in place without higher fines and better awareness campaigns around the dangers of smoking.
A reduction in smoking also promises a positive return on the environment, as the production and consumption of tobacco releases an estimated 80 million tonnes of CO2 each year, according to the WHO.
