BY MARILYN KING (232news.com)
The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) in Collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday 31st May 2023 commemorated World No Tobacco Day at the Sierra Bay Hotel in Freetown.
The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Prince Cole, said that every year on the 31st of May the World Health Organization and Public Health Commemorate World No Tobacco Day.
That with the Theme: Grow Food, Not Tobacco he continued that Tobacco has a harmful effect in society, and that it kills eight million people every year.
He continued that Tobacco also pollutes the air, and has a climate change in our food crisis and can cause cancer.
He noted that they need to cause awareness raising, create opportunities for commercialization of tobacco and pointed out that so many thousands of acres of land are compacted with Tobacco.
The Chief Medical Officer MOHS, Dr. Sartie M. Kenneh, in his keynote address maintained that at the Ministry they pledged to do more on World No Tobacco Day.
He furthered that the campaign serves as an opportunity to mobilize government as policy makers, and to support farmers as WHO has implied.
He stated that 30 years ago the world Health assembled the Adapting WHO framework convention on Tobacco control.
The Director of Non-Communicable Diseases MOHS, Dr. Santigi Sesay said that Sierra Leone became the 38th country with tobacco control laws in the African Region.
He furthered that the tobacco and Nicotine Control Act of 2022 was passed into law on 3rd August 2022 by the country’s law makers and was assented to by His Excellency the President Julius Maada Bio on 6th April 2023.
He said the purpose of the Act is to protect the public health of the people of Sierra Leone adding that the Act seeks to protect the rights of non-users of tobacco and nicotine products to provide a clean and healthy environment.
He said the Act promote and provide for rehabilitation and cessation of consumers of tobacco and nicotine products.
He noted that protection from involuntary exposure to smoke or vaping in Cinemas, halls, theatres, video houses, places of performance, disco halls, or entertainment facilities, hotels, children’s homes, residential houses, and other places.
He said people shall not smoke in an outdoor space that is within 10 meters of a window, door or air intake mechanisms of an enclosed public space, workspace, or waiting queue.
He noted that it is prohibited to sell tobacco and nicotine products to a person under the age of 18 years, and that a person who contravenes this law commits an offence and is liable under the Act to be punished.
The Coordinator Health System of WHO, Dr. Selassy Amah D’almeida, said the tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health challenges, the world has ever faced, killing more than eight million people around the world every year.
He continued that it is rising in the Africa Region due to the increase production of tobacco products and aggressive marketing by the tobacco industry.
He noted that WHO will not relent in their effort to highlight that tobacco control is one of the most important, effective and efficient measures.
