‘Speed-up passage of Tobacco Control Bill’

Wednesday, July 7, 2010
A group of health reporters at a day’s seminar on Ghana’s draft Tobacco Control Bill have urged the government not to further delay the promulgation of the bill which can protect the lives of non-smokers.
The bill, which is yet to be sent to Cabinet for consideration, has been on the drawing board since 2003.
When it becomes law, the Tobacco Control Bill will, among other things, prohibit a person from smoking in public and, therefore, protect non-smokers from the harmful effects of tobacco.
The bill provides in part that “A person shall not smoke tobacco or tobacco products or hold a lighted tobacco in enclosed or indoor area of a work place, or any other public place, a workplace whether privately or publicly owned”.
Some of the participating journalists, who said they had followed issues of the draft bill since the first draft in 2003, indicated that it was high time it was passed for the benefit of non-smokers in society.
In her presentation, a Principal State Attorney at the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General’s Department, Mrs Anna Pearl Akiwumi Siriboe said many of the things which were currently being done to subtly promote the use of tobacco products would be prohibited under the law.
Those prohibitions, she said, would be captured under “advertising in relation to tobacco and tobacco products” and explained that activities such as indirect tobacco advertising, organisation, service, activity or event use of tobacco trademarks, logos, brand names as well as tobacco or tobacco products or tobacco related products on bill boards, mural, or transport stations, airports and sea ports would be prohibited.
On tobacco sponsorship, she stated that “a person shall not initiate or engage in any form of tobacco sponsorship; organise or promote an activity that is to take place in the country; make financial contribution to an organised activity in the country, make financial contribution to a person in respect of the organisation or promotion as well as the participation by that person in an organised activity”.
Mrs Akiwumi-Siriboe also touched on packaging and labelling, point of sale health warning, public education against smoking, sale of tobacco products, youth access and minimum age restrictions and treatment of tobacco addiction.
The bill also contains issues on inspections and enforcement, power of the Food and Drugs Boards (FDB) to prosecute, regulations, offences and penalties, interpretation, transitional provisions and health-warning.
Speaking on the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the Health Promotion Officer at the World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Office, Ms Sophia Twum-Barima said the framework was developed because a global strategy was needed to confront a global epidemic that countries could not address through domestic legislation.
She said it was the first international public health treaty negotiated under the auspices of WHO.
Ms Twum-Barima indicated that the framework contained guidelines and requirements on the most cost-effective tobacco control measures.
“It provides the basic tools for countries to enact comprehensive tobacco legislation. It also provides numerous measures designed to promote and protect public health; promote research and exchange of information among other countries”, she pointed out.
She also indicated that the framework had the objective to protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences and also provide a framework for tobacco control measures.
An official of the Research and Development Division of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Mrs Edith Koryor Wellington called on the media to intensify their role as educators to get the message of tobacco control through.
She reminded the public that exposure to some chemicals in tobacco might lead to cancers of the lung, throat and mouth as well as disease conditions like gangrene and advised smokers to stop. She further advised non-smokers not to smoke since the product was addictive.