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Non-implementation of ban on public smoking worries MPs

Members of Parliament (MPs) have expressed concern about the non-implementation of the ban on public smoking six months after the passage of the Public Health Bill into an Act by the House.

They contended that notwithstanding the coming into force of the Act, adverts on tobacco could still be seen on the streets and some companies were still sponsoring programmes connected to tobacco products.

The MPs were contributing to a statement made by the Member of Parliament for Sekyere Afram Plains, Mr Alex A. Mensah, on the effects of tobacco, to commemorate the World No Tobacco Day, which is celebrated on May 31 every year.

In his statement, the MP said the theme of the celebration - “Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship,” was a clarion call on all to be decisive to block every avenue for the promotion, sponsorship and advertising of tobacco in the country.

He said evidence showed that a comprehensive advertising ban on tobacco and its products, as required by the WHO Convention for Tobacco Control, had led to reductions in the number of people starting or continuing smoking.

The MP said the global tobacco epidemic killed nearly six million people every year worldwide out of which 600,000 were non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke.

"Unless we act quickly to halt or drastically reduce consumption, the epidemic will kill more than eight million people every year by 2030. More than 80 per cent of these preventable deaths will be among people living in the low and middle-income countries".

Mr Mensah said while governments and the international community were trying to implement effective measures to reduce tobacco use and protect the health of the people, their efforts were being thwarted by an industry whose products killed people.

He also said the control of the use of tobacco was essential for achieving global development goals, adding that "if we do not step up our efforts to control it, tobacco could kill up to one billion people this century".

Contributing to the statement, the Majority Chief Whip, Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak, said it was unfortunate that civil society organisations which put pressure on Parliament to pass the bill into an act, had now recoiled into their shells.

He called for more efforts to put meaning into the act rather than people assembling each year to commemorate No Smoking Day.

For his part, a Deputy Minister of Information and Media Relations, Alhaji Murtala Mohammed, called for more education to raise awareness of the existence of the law.

According to him, there was the need for inscriptions to be mounted at vantage points to warn people against smoking at public places, in addition to the setting up of counselling centres to counsel people who want to quit smoking.

The MP for Atwima Kwanwoma, Dr Kojo Appiah-Kubi, said since the act had made the country a ‘No Smoking’ area, the law should be vigorously implemented to save more people from untimely deaths.

When he caught the eye of the First Deputy Speaker, who was in the chair, Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, the MP for Keta, Mr Richard Quashigah, wondered why the country should wait until an occasion such as the World No Smoking Day before officials talk about the Public Health Act.

He said education was key to informing the public about the law and expressed the hope that the agencies charged with the implementation of the law would rise up to the occasion.

The MP for Atwima Mponua, Mr Isaac Kwame Asiamah, called on the authorities to focus their attention on nightclubs where the youth had been smoking.

Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

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