Cameroon: disappearing ads mark good start

Cameroon, set in the crook of west Africa, is one of the many African countries that, while not often in the news, have tended to be open playing fields for tobacco companies. Depending on economic factors, some of them have at times seemed like adventure playgrounds for tobacco advertisers. In the past, like so many similar developing countries, Cameroon’s frail economy, with all the immediate concerns of any low income developing country, helped ensure that tobacco control never became a dominant issue. Apart from smoking bans in healthcare facilities, and restrictions in government buildings and educational facilities, it showed nearly a full house of “not regulated” scores in surveys of tobacco control measures and infrastructure. …