Health Minister pledges to push for passage of Tobacco Bill

Accra, June 1, GNA - The Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa Yankey, on Monday pledged to submit the draft Tobacco Bill to cabinet for approval to be forwarded to parliament by the end of June. He said the passage of the bill was long over due taking into consideration that Ghana ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) as the 39th country some years ago. Dr Yankey made the pledge in Accra when he launched World No Tobacco Day that fell on May 31 under the theme "Tobacco Health Warnings." It calls on governments to adopt tobacco health warnings that would yield maximum effectiveness by way of informing and educating smokers and the public.

Dr Yankey said the European Union, United Kingdom, Canada and developing countries like Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Gambia and Benin had succeeded in enacting laws banning smoking at public places and are in the process of ensuring that approved and standardized messages and pictures are boldly put on the cigarette packs. He said the Bill, drafted since 2005, when passed into law would constitute the legal framework for the enforcement of tobacco control activities in the country.

The bill in accordance with the FCTC Article 13 will also prohibit advertisements and promotion of tobacco products and sale of tobacco products to persons less than 18 years of age. The Health Minister explained that in line with the commitment to move the nation forward, the government supported other directives that sought to ban tobacco use in public places and assured of the Ministry's commitment to lead the crusade against the epidemic as well as rendering support for other stakeholders in the arena of public health. Tobacco smoking caused a lot of harm to the health of people and its use was a major cause of over 20 major categories of fatal, disabling diseases and preventable deaths from cancers, heart attacks and respiratory diseases.

A stick of cigarette contains over 4,000 chemicals which when inhaled could result in cardiovascular diseases, cancer of the kidney, lung, breast, pancreas, bladder, bronchitis and emphysema among other disabilities. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), there are 1.3 billion smokers worldwide with 4.9 million people dying each year before their 50th birthday. Dr Yankey appealed to smokers to quit smoking for their own sake, for the sake of their loved ones and the entire society and urged other stakeholders to actively join in the crusade to fight tobacco. Dr Elias Sory, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, expressed concern for the long delay in the passage of the bill into law looking at the enthusiasm that accompanied the drafting of the bill and described the delay as "embarrassment". He enumerated the dangerous effects of passive smoking calling for an immediate action by the health Minister. Ms Sophia Twum-Barimah, Communications Officer of WHO on behalf of the Africa Regional office, said tobacco was responsible for the death of one in 10 adults worldwide with five million deaths occurring each year as a result of tobacco use. "If the current smoking patterns continue, tobacco will cause some 10 million deaths each year by 2020. It is estimated that about 650 million people around the world use tobacco and half of the number will eventually be killed by tobacco".

She said the warnings on each cigarette pack the World Health Organisation has prescribed should contain both picture and words covering half of the front pack and on both sides. The picture warnings were to make people change their intentions and opinions about smoking. Representatives from Environmental Protection Agency, John Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Coalition of NGOs in Tobacco Control called for the passage of the bill to help prevent the unnecessary burden of tobacco related deaths and diseases. Mrs Comfort Opoku Oware of the Greater Accra Regional Office of the Ghana Tourist Board was awarded a special prize and a certificate by the WHO Africa Regional Office for her outstanding contribution towards tobacco control. She is the second Ghanaian to have won the award since its inception after Mr. Justice V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe, Commissioner of the Statute Law Revision, Attorney General's Department, who was the winner last year. WHO gives the award every year to individuals or organisations in each of the six WHO regions for outstanding contribution towards tobacco control. 01 June 09