Tobacco- Despite the risks, smoking thrives

May 31, 2009

YESTERDAY, Uganda joined the rest of the world to mark the World No Tobacco Day. Anti-cigarette activists are vowing to step up the campaign to compel the Government to tighten its grip on smokers who do not care about other people’s health. <br>

By Catherine Bekunda
and Francis Kagolo


YESTERDAY, Uganda joined the rest of the world to mark the World No Tobacco Day. Anti-cigarette activists are vowing to step up the campaign to compel the Government to tighten its grip on smokers who do not care about other people’s health.

According to the Uganda Heart Institute, tobacco is the leading cause of preventable cancer deaths in the world, accounting for over 5.2 million deaths annually.

It is projected that the death toll of tobacco-related diseases will rise to 10 million per year, with 70% occurring in developing countries.
Owing to such health risks, in 2004 the Government passed a law barring smoking in public places.

It is considered a violation of non-smokers’ rights to life and to a clean and healthy environment.
The then water, lands and environment minister, Kahinda Otafiire, ordered the ban to take immediate effect.

He defined public places as “any place where people converge and where there are non-smokers who do not want to inhale the smoke.”

This came a day after Uganda signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2004.
“No person shall smoke a tobacco product or hold a lighted tobacco product in an enclosed, indoor area of a public place,” stipulates the National Environment (Control Of Smoking In Public Places) Regulations 2004.

The law also prohibits smoking in a public service vehicle, aircraft, train or other public transport. It, thus, requires owners of bars, theatres and public transport where smoking is prohibited to post clear “No Smoking” signs prominently.

However, despite the heath risks it poses, smoking has continued to thrive even in public places, in total disregard of the law.

And the bodies that should have implemented the legislation have not intervened much.

As a result, mob justice has increased due to increased smoking in public places, as non-smokers struggle to guard themselves from the effects of passive smoking.

The Police in Tororo last year arrested one Julius Opondo over allegedly killing a colleague, Desiderio Okecho, by twisting his neck for lighting a cigarette in Wawulere Market.

In another incident, pandemonium broke out recently near Mutaasa Kafeero Plaza in Kampala, when a pregnant woman slapped a man who was smoking near her.

Uganda has more than two million tobacco smokers, according to the tobacco industry experts. Thousands of people have fallen victim to passive smoking.

Many bars The New Vision visited displayed the ‘No Smoking’ poster but seemed to lack the will and capacity to enforce the regulation.

Although the law requires taxi and bus operators to display ‘No Smoking’ posters in their vehicles, almost 90% have not put these signs up.

Why hasn’t the law against smoking in public places been enforced?
Lawyer Phillip Karugaba says enforcement of the law has been weak. He worked with The Environmental Action Network to win a landmark victory barring smoking in public places in 2002.

Karugaba blames the environmental watchdog, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) for failing to crack down on smokers.

“NEMA should crack down on these smokers like it did with sound and noise polluters,” he suggests.

Karugaba says compliance, however, seems to be more a result of enlightened owners or patrons than any effort by NEMA.

It has about 380 environmental inspectors, but the number greatly reduces at night when they have to go home, Dr. Aryamanya Mugisha, the executive director, reveals.

He says about 70 officers are available for the night shift but may sometimes need cover of the Police when doing their work.

Mugisha says although the law is not yet fully implemented, his organisation has had an impact on providing clean air to Ugandans.

Some places have heeded their call to designate smoking and no-smoking areas. There are many pending cases before courts of law of people arrested for smoking in public areas.

According to the law, local governments are supposed to make by-laws for the protection of non-smokers from environmental smoke and side stream smoke, but very few districts have done this.

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