Dar es Salaam – Four months ago, Musa Adonicus Sambala declared himself a nonsmoker. But hours after deciding to kick the habit he bought himself a pack of 20 cigarettes and smoked 18 in six hours. He smoked compulsively. Inside remorse and self-pity burned him, he says.

Another furtive attempt to quit smoking.

When he started smoking at 23 years, he was easily satisfied with pieces shared with fellow smokers. In 2020, he had wrapped smoking around every routine. Tanzania banned smoking in public places in 2003, but around Mr Sambala’s workplace people smoked anyway.

“I knew tobacco harmed me. I was aware of the heaviness in my chest and grim prospects of some disease in the future, but my many attempts (to quit) failed. I had arguments with my wife about my addiction. But I couldn’t help it,” says the father of two.

The change for Mr Sambala came when he started receiving daily text messages from a client, who also happened to be an anti-tobacco activist in Tanzania. For more than a month before this successful attempt to kick the habit, the messages came every day.

“I wanted to quit, but my previous failures loomed too large. In the morning, I’d sit on the side of my bed and avoid my phone,” recalls Mr Sambala.

The messages never let up. Every morning when he woke up, he could be certain the day would include two morning cigarettes and the ‘blip’ of his mobile phone, with a message imploring him to quit.

He struggled to sleep. “My chest was heavy with smoking and my mind overwhelmed with guilt that I was harming myself. How could someone else be more mindful of my health than me?”

Before work one day, in what Mr Sambala describes as a mixture of guilt and strength, he picked up his two morning cigarettes, squeezed them in his right hand, and threw them in a dust bin.

He has not lit a cigarette in three months, he says, and now feeling healthier and in control.

Praise has come from friends, some wishing they could do the same. “Only a handful of smokers would not admit that they wish they could quit, immediately,” Mr Sambala says. He knows how hard it is to quit and he is ready to help.

“I voluntarily monitor and encourage friends who try to quit. It reinforces my own resolve.”

Tanzania is among 168 countries that are signatory to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) – the most powerful tool at our disposal to reduce the health and economic burden caused by tobacco.

The Convention calls on governments to take incremental action to prevent tobacco consumption, marketing and exposure, among many other measures.

When informed of the risks, most tobacco users want to quit, but few get help and support to overcome their dependence.

Treatment of tobacco dependence is one of the measures proposed for any comprehensive tobacco control strategy as indicated in Article 14 of the WHO FCTC. This is because support to stop smoking and medication can increase the likelihood that a smoker will quit successfully.

Treatment programmes should include tobacco cessation advice incorporated into primary health-care services, easily accessible and free telephone help lines (known as quit lines), and access to low-cost medicines.

WHO continues to support Parties to the Convention willing to work, to the extent possible, in creating a healthier environment for their populations by implementing the WHO FCTC.