Speed up passage ofTobacco

7/7/09

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru

SPEAKERS at a workshop on tobacco have appealed to the government to facilitate the passage of the Tobacco Control Bill into law.
That, they said, was crucial to regulate theBill’) sale and use of tobacco in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB), Dr Stephen Opuni and the Executive Director of the Vision for Alternative Development (VALD), Mr Issah Ali, made the call.
Organised by VALD, a civil society organisation, the workshop was attended by representatives of Ministries, Departments and Agencies and civil society organisations.
Participants discussed key elements and provisions of Tobacco Control Bill and made commitment to develop appropriate strategies needed to get the Tobacco Bill passed into law.
Dr Opuni noted that Ghana was the 39th country to ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2004. That gesture, he said, “placed her under the obligation to begin to domesticate the provisions of the convention.”
He said subsequent to the ratification, the National Control Bill was drafted and the FDB was mandated to regulate tobacco, which led to the formation of the Tobacco and Substances of Abuse Department under the FDB.
However, Dr Opuni said, tobacco regulation had been largely dormant due to the non-passage of the Tobacco Control Bill into law.
Coincidentally, he said, the emphasis for this year’s World No-Tobacco celebration was “Tobacco Health Warnings.” He said the general consensus globally was for the use of warnings which “are a fusion of texts and pictures.”
He said research had shown that tobacco health warnings which incorporate pictures were more effective in conveying the message of the harm wreaked by tobacco.
Mr Ali stressed the need for the government to ensure that the proposed Tobacco Control Law “is strong and in full compliance with the FCTC. We are humbly urging your Committee on Health to ensure that only a strong Tobacco Control Bill is passed.”
He said the passage of the bill into law would help in preventing diseases, such as lung cancer, heart diseases and infertility as well as interference from the tobacco industries.