Health officials, government leaders and representatives of different NGOs last week convened at Butaro Hospital, in Burera District to discuss issues pertaining tobacco smoking. During the discussion, participants also commended efforts by government to deal with other drugs such as marijuana and illicit beers among others and requested for the total ban on tobacco due to its health implications on both smokers and passive smokers.Dr Daniel Nyamwasa, the director of Kacyiru Police Hospital, said the government has the capacity to ban tobacco, adding that controlling smokers and advising them is not enough.He said this can be made possible through joint efforts with all partner institutions.“We need to ban tobacco and its production in the country. If we ban tobacco, dealers will find it hard to access it,” he saidHe said that concerned officials should consider citizen’s health and return the law to Parliament to be amended, with the aim of banning tobacco use.About six million people die globally every year with 600,000 dying through passive smoking.Rwandan health officials say the number of smokers in the country reduced from 16.1 per cent to 13 per cent in 2012.“We campaign against other drugs such as marijuana and we should therefore move to safeguard people’s health through the banning of tobacco,” said Aime Bosenibamwe, the Governor of Northern Province. He said Tobacco has been used in Rwandan society for so many years and it requires more efforts to uproot its consumption.Francois Gasigwa, a resident of Muhoza Sector, Musanze District said he has been smoking for 20 years and he tried to quit in vain.“I started smoking when I was 12 years. I am well aware of the implications of smoking but failed to abandon the vice. I know now it is not good for my health and doctors have told me that the constant cough I have was due to smoking,” he said.However, the State Minister in charge of Primary Healthcare, Dr Anita Asiimwe, insisted on the need for smokers to be mobilised other than outright banning of tobacco which is rooted in the Rwandan culture.“Tobacco industries started producing tobacco products before their impact was identified and most people have consumed them for years. It might not be easy to ban tobacco. What is necessary is to keep mobilising people and teach them about the dangers of tobacco while moving towards total elimination,” she saidParliament has passed anti-tobacco bill which was gazetted in March this year prohibiting smoking in public areas like office buildings, court premises, factories, cinema halls, theatres, hospitals, restaurants, hotels and bars, among other places.The law obliges anyone seeking to grow tobacco on more than half a hectare of land to seek licence from government and also prevents public advertising.
