KARACHI: Need stressed to implement law against smoking
KARACHI, May 24: A consultative meeting organized by The Network for Consumer Organization stressed the need to strictly monitor implementation of the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non Smokers’ Health Ordinance 2002 which came into force on June 30, 2003.
According to a press release issued here on Tuesday experts present on the occasion proposed a nationwide monitoring mechanism, whose report would be disseminated to the Health Ministry and Ministry of Law besides being provided to the national media.
The participants pertaining to different parts of the country attending the meeting on “Enhancing Tobacco Control Efforts” taking stock of the fact that the cited Ordinance prohibits smoking in public places, that is, offices, educational institutions, hospitals and public vehicles urged the concerned quarters to intensify their efforts in its across the board implementation.
Need for monitoring the enforcement of the Ordinance and its constant reporting to the concerned agencies was repeatedly stressed as it also holds an important provision of absolute ban on the sale and promotion of tobacco products in and around educational institutions.
It was reminded that the government, itself had identified smoking as one of the country’s leading causes of morbidity and mortality in its health policy announced in December 1997.
Scenario over the years shows that the number of tobacco users in Pakistan is rising rapidly and despite promulgation of anti-tobacco ordinance, the government has been largely unable to take concrete steps to curb tobacco use and restrict its underage sale.
It may not be out of context to mention that the Pakistan Paediatric Association in its recent report stated that 1,000 to 1,200 children between the ages of six and 16 years take up smoking every day.
29 per cent of men and 3.4 per cent of women smoke cigarettes regularly, concluded the National Health Survey, while the Pakistan Society of Cancer Prevention claims 37 per cent of men and four per cent of women over 15 years of age are smokers.
The participants of the meeting observed that though the law did not encompass all the issues related to tobacco control, yet its implementation had a strong symbolic value as it had been approved amidst intensive lobbying and opposition from the tobacco industry. — APP
