MPs push for ban on public smoking

The imminent tobacco law is not meant to entirely abolish tobacco in the country but it must reduce risks of use, members of a joint Senate-Chamber of Deputies committee set up to streamline issues in the draft tobacco bill stressed on Wednesday.While ironing out drafting technicalities, the MPs affirmed that there will be no compromise about smoking in public places – any meeting places, at wedding parties, bus stops, or any other places where non-smokers might be inconvenienced.“Government would find it difficult to put up special smoking points everywhere but there are places especially where people meet on an international level that we are legally obliged to consider. Such places include the airport and the stadium,” Dr. Bonaventure Nzeyimana, a Ministry of Health official told the joint session during the debate on the definition of what a public place is.The bill will put a stop to smoking in children’s homes, places of worship, prisons, police stations and cells, offices and office buildings, court premises, factories, cinema halls, theatres, hospitals, clinics and other health institutions, restaurants, hotels, bars or other eating places.Smoking will be prohibited in public service vehicles, aircrafts, commuter boats, passenger vehicles or any other public conveyance and children’s education facilities. No Smoking signs must be placed near bus stops, airports, air fields, and other public transport terminals, indoor markets, shopping malls and retail and other wholesale establishments.The joint committee noted that when it comes to non-commercial cultivation of tobacco, the acceptable acreage should be reduced to half a hectare instead of a hectare, as previously proposed, so as to discourage its farming. People who will wish to plant tobacco on an area bigger than that will have to apply to the relevant ministry.At one point, Senator Dr. Jean Népomuscène Sindikubwabo said: “It is clear that the tobacco crop is not a crop like any other. And even though the bill is not meant to abolish tobacco, it aims to reduce the risks involved in its use, but if it were possible to attain total eradication, it would cause no harm”.He then proposed that the clause stating that commercial cultivation be defined by farming done on land over a hectare and MPs later agreed it be reduced to a half.Another issue that teams from both chambers sought to confer on was the issue of advertising. It was agreed that, like elsewhere in the world, Rwanda should abolish tobacco advertising to discourage people from use so as to reduce risks of smoking.Dr. Nzeyimana told MPs that Rwanda is party to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).The Convention was developed in response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic and is an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health. According to the WHO, it represents a milestone for the promotion of public health and provides new legal dimensions for international health cooperation.The bill will be approved by both chambers before it is taken for promulgation.Once passed, it will add to the government’s efforts to curb the effects of passive smoking – the dangerous exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke (SHS) which is a mixture of exhaled mainstream smoke and side stream smoke released from a smoldering cigarette or other smoking device and diluted with ambient air.The WHO estimates that over 50 percent of children worldwide are exposed to SHS in their homes.Article 8 of the WHO’s FCTC, adopted by all WHO Member States in May 2003, states that scientific evidence has unequivocally established that exposure to tobacco smoke causes death, disease and disability.Tobacco contains over 400 toxic substances and research indicates that there are over 25 related diseases affecting the lungs, the heart and blood veins.Smoking related illnesses include cancer of the bladder, larynx, esophagus, mouth, throat, lungs, and heart diseases such as heart attack, coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis.Other smoking-related ailments are asthma, childhood respiratory ailments, cataracts, diabetes, angina, gum disease, gangrene, impotence, loss of smell and taste, osteoporosis (in women), peripheral artery disease, pneumonia, premature aging and stomach ulcers.WHO estimates show that 29 percent of our burden in Rwanda is Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and among four main common risk factors of these diseases is tobacco use.

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MPs push for ban on public smoking