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The front page of the Toronto Star on Monday said politicians in Georgina want to ban smoking at that town's soccer pitch. Apparently, players have complained about clouds of smoke at the games.
Georgina is onto something, and hopefully that town can set an example for soccer fields and other outdoor places where kids play organized sports. . . .
Let's use some common sense and move away from the sidelines when you must smoke at a children's sporting event or any other such occasion.
Better yet, leave them at home and set an even better example.
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Health ministers from African countries made a declaration on tobacco control in Africa the continent yesterday in Yaounde.
A lot is still undone as regards tobacco control in Africa. Statistics indicate that 25 per cent of youths are tobacco consumers in Africa. Dr Luis Sambo, World Health Organisation (WHO), Regional Director for Africa says tobacco users suffer from chronic diseases and the public at large deserves protection from secondary inhalation.
That is why Ministers of health for the WHO Afro Region, during the occasion of the third meeting of the conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control holding, during the 58th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, reaffirmed their commitment to control tobacco use in the region.
In a statement, the 46 ministers of health of the WHO African Region stood together and recommitted themselves to take all actions
A lot is still undone as regards tobacco control in Africa. Statistics indicate that 25 per cent of youths are tobacco consumers in Africa. Dr Luis Sambo, World Health Organisation (WHO), Regional Director for Africa says tobacco users suffer from chronic diseases and the public at large deserves protection from secondary inhalation. That is why Ministers of health for the WHO Afro Region, during the occasion of the third meeting of the conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control holding, during the 58th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, reaffirmed their commitment to control tobacco use in the region.
About 44.82 per cent of students are exposed to tobacco. School environments are yet to become tobacco-free zones. This is why yesterday in Yaounde, the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Secondary Education, Catherine Abena, officially launched the national school competition on plastic arts under the theme "School free from tobacco, drugs and AIDS". The competition, which begins from March 26th in all secondary schools in the country, is aimed at helping students express their knowledge and ideas on tobacco and HIV through arts. The competition will not only render school premises free from tobacco, drugs and HIV but will enable the artistic works of students to be used as items to sensitise the school community against drugs and tobacco. Special prizes will be awarded to teachers who cease smoking.
Most billboards carrying tobacco publicity in Yaounde have been ragged.
Be it from the Obili neighbourhood in Yaounde, passing through the Basic Education roundabout, to down town or the Bastos and Nlongkak roundabouts, one can not be indifferent to the absence of attractive billboards which use to carry publicity on tobacco. Messages and images on these billboards have been removed. This is in conformity with the law promulgated by the Head of State on 29 December 2006 on tobacco publicity. Article 39 of the law forbids publicity of tobacco in Cameroon and even the sponsorship of activities by tobacco firms. Parties concerned with the application and respect of the law are already at work. They have started by removing existing tobacco publicity banners in town.
Many people seem not to understand what is happening. Some days back, many students at the University of Yaounde I where taken aback when they saw the large tobacco publicity banner around the university removed. . . .
cigarette stands and other publicity tools used by tobacco firms such as umbrellas are still seen around town particularly with traders of tobacco. Experts say these things have to vanish.
If the government fully hearkens to the World Health Organisation, WHO, convention on tobacco control, then public smoking would eventually be banned in Cameroon.
After Members of Parliament, MPs, adopted the bill to that effect on July 6, the onus now rests on government; how far it will go in implementing the provisions of the convention.
The bill No 726/PJL/AN was to authorise the President of the Republic to ratify the WHO framework convention on tobacco control signed in Geneva on May 21, 2003.
According to an explanatory note, the international community signed the convention after acknowledging that the consumption of tobacco is a global problem with serious public health consequences.
Several cigarette distributors and traders in Douala, Bamenda and Bafoussam, are in a standoff with the multinational company, the British American Tobacco, BAT, headquartered in Yaounde.The dealers in cigarettes are accusing the company of having made false allegations against them, to the Minister of Economy and Finance, Polycarpe Abah Abah.
The Post gathered that the General Manager of BAT Cameroun, Alain Schacher, had in a three-page document dated April 4, 2005, sent to the Minister of Economy and Finance, listed the names of some big business operators in cigarettes in some Provinces of the country, which BAT alleged, deal in contraband cigarettes.
Five major points featured on the agenda of the National Advertisement Council which met in extraordinary session in Yaounde yesterday. Introducing into the law dispositions that will enable the council regulate advertisement on alcohol, tobacco and health; poor practices of some councils in the award of contracts on advertisements; illegal exercise by some economic actors of the profession of advertisement managers; examining the law of 29 July, 1989 on the organization and functioning of the National Advertisement Council and regulating newsworthy advertisements.
Presided at by the Minister of Communication, Prof. Pierre Moukoko Mbonjo, members of the council set out to put order in the sector not only by rethinking the possible modifications that can be made to the law regulating the advertisement profession, but by ensuring, through the council's administrative structures, that actors in the business do not abuse the existing law. From the look of things, such rampant abuses had become excessive with advertisements in alcohol, tobacco and health. In order to better protect the population against health hazards that may come as a result of these activities, the council decided to put an end to it. This will be done by adapting the law in such a way as to pre-empt imminent disorders which can tarnish the image of Cameroon and eventually go against universal practices.
The 2005 finance law in a bid to fetch funds for State coffers has incidentally addressed one of the burning issues in Cameroon; the excessive consumption of alcohol and cigarette, which remained a serious threat to the health of Cameroonians. The number of adepts in beer drinking and cigarettes smoking has been mounting. Everyday, bars spring up while new brands of cigarettes emerge. Quite a good business economically, but should we sacrifice our health for the sake of the economy? That is the question many people have been asking. This question is certainly behind certain decisions taken by health authorities in Cameroon, notably the inscription, "Dangerous to Your Health" on every packet of cigarettes.
British American created the archive to hold millions of pages of documents produced for the anti- tobacco suit filed by the state of Minnesota in 1994. Most of the records involve health and marketing issues that were the crux of the lawsuit.
But embedded in the mountains of paper are fistfuls of memos on British American's links to cigarette smuggling — documents that weren't pertinent to the lawsuit and that the company never was asked to produce. It turned them over anyway, for reasons that remain a mystery.
The smuggling papers chronicle British American's swashbuckling march through the developing world and the role of contraband sales in its global expansion. Among the papers are memos from high-ranking executives discussing the importance of illicit sales in maintaining or building market share against like-minded competitors in such locales as Lebanon, Argentina and China.
Their disclosure rocked the industry
Urbain Olanguena Awono made the call on the occasion of the 16th World No Tobacco Day commemorated last Saturday. . . . From all indication, there was reason to celebrate. The 16th world no tobacco day came at the heals of an international mobilisation against tobacco consumption. . .
According to the Minister of Public Health, Urbain Olanguena Awono Cameroon will sign the convention which, by the end of this year, will be proposed to parliament for examination in view of its ratification.
Meanwhile, a national plan of action for tobacco control will soon be elaborated.