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The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar has placed a ban on smoking in public places in the territory with an assurance that violators would be persecuted by the law.
The ban is to be enforced under the Tobacco Smoking Control Act of 1990 and would take effect from May 31st, 2008 to coincide with World Tobacco day. . . .
Modibbo said the Tobacco Control Act is to be enforced in the 8000 square kilometres of the FCT, including airports, restaurants, parks and other open spaces.
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A TOTAL of 52 participants including mall managers, restaurant and hotel managers, health professionals, legal experts, law enforcement agents and government officials recently attended a National Health Authority’s (NHA) workshop on Tobacco Law number 20 of 2002.
Penalties for violating the law include fines of up to QR5,000, closure of establishment which violates the law and jail of up to six months.
The aim of the workshop, which is one of the activities lined up for the commemoration of the ‘World No Tobacco Day’ was to discuss how to improve the implementation of the law among other things.
The theme for the year is ‘Tobacco-Free Youth’.
If you are a regular smoker, your daily habit is, whether you admit it or not, costing your money and health. Now you are offered a chance to win some money and save your health at the same time. Easy?
The first nationwide give-up-smoking competition, to be launched on June 1, is accepting applications through to May 31, the World No Tobacco Day.
Citizens can sign up for the event at local centers for disease control and prevention.
As a joint effort by the Ministry of Health and several other government departments, the competition aims to promote healthy living and a smoke-free Beijing Olympics.
The Health Information Division on Friars Hill Road has launched a special activity ahead of the observation of World No Tobacco Day to be held on 31 May this year.
Students between the ages of seven to 15 years, are encouraged to participate in the Anti-Tobacco Jingle Contest which is currently in progress and runs until 23 May.
Head of the division Colin O’Keiffe said this forms part of the activities for World No Tobacco Day. . . .
The theme for this year’s World No-Tobacco Day is “Tobacco-Free Youth”.
China will ban smoking on school campuses as part of an effort to cut down on tobacco use before the Olympics, state media said Wednesday.
The Health Ministry will ban smoking on all school premises - kindergartens through high school - beginning on World No Tobacco Day on May 31, the Beijing Evening News said. . . .
The Health Department will also work with other departments to crack down on illegal tobacco advertising, especially ads that target young smokers.
In China almost 2 trillion cigarettes are sold every year.
Smoking is a no-no in many households, but that is not so faithfully resolved in some.
So conscientious non-smokers are ardently for the implementation and enforcement of smoking bans. We should not be discouraged by relatives who make a pushing smokehouse of our dwellings and we should pray that they should take into consideration the well-being of other members of the household.
Ms. Soe Nyunt ,World Health Organization representative in the Philippines, recently presented the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008 which shows that tobacco already kills 5.4 million people a year . . .
On the institutional level, acting on the recommendation of Betty Lou S. Penera, Philippine Information Agency staff director for planning and communication research, who cited agreements made at a multi-sectoral planning workshop, Secretary Conrado A. Limcaoco Jr. issued a memorandum to all regional directors and staff directors and the rank and file, to fully implement RA 9211. The memo said that, to comply with the law, the PIA building is to be declared a Smoke-Free building.
As many as 90 percent of children surveyed by the Formosa Cancer Foundation identified themselves as victims of second-hand tobacco smoke, with the majority exposed to the hazard at home.
The results of the survey were released yesterday to coincide with "World No Tobacco Day," whose theme this year is tobacco-free youth.
The survey showed that while more than 90 percent of respondents wish to live in a smoke-free environment, 70 percent have family members who smoke at home and another 60 percent have been forced to breathe second-hand smoke exhaled by a guest. . . .
In related news, the John Tung Foundation, the nation's biggest anti-smoking non-profit organization, has called upon bureaus of health nationwide to fine convenience stores for not excluding cigarettes from giveaway promotions.
After collecting a certain number of purchase coupons at convenience stores -- including cigarettes -- customers can redeem them for collectible giveaway figurines. The foundation argues that such giveaways could encourage smoking, especially among younger people, who are most likely to be attracted to the figurines.
I have neither felt the urge to light up nor understood the pleasure others derive from doing so.
The theme of this year's World No Tobacco Day, 'Tobacco smoke-free environment', together with the stepping up of a campaign worldwide to control smoking, offers hope. Hope, not just for a healthier and fresher environment, but also of reducing an enormous health hazard. . . .
One thing is clear though. Most of us feel well when we are out of the city where the air is polluted. This is the good a smoke-free city and country would do to the environment.
But does this mean that the Government has the right to enter our homes and implement measures that will prevent parents from smoking? Perhaps not, but public health authorities have a duty to ensure that parents are aware of the danger they expose their children to when they smoke.
For smokers, their days are numbered and they should remember that majority of people do not smoke and find second-hand smoke unpleasant, yet they often have no choice but to breathe it in.
This was stated by the Minister of Health, Pehin Orang Kaya Indera Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Hj Awg Suyoi, in his speech as guest of honour at the World No Tobacco Day launching ceremony held at The Mall in Gadong, yesterday.
According to the minister, the incidence of lung and bronchus cancer in Brunei had increased from 30 cases in 2003 to 56 cases in 2005.
This year's theme, which as chosen by World Health Organisation, is "100 per cent tobacco-free environment", while the slogan for this year's World No Tobacco Day is "Smoke-free inside - Create and Enjoy 100 per cent Smoke Free Environments".
"This theme gives attention for promoting an environment that is 100 per cent free from tobacco smoke in the most effective ways to protect the public from exposure to tobacco smoke," said the guest of honour.
"The Ministry of Health (MoH) in time to come will implement the Tobacco Order 2005 and its regulations. This order aims to protect the health of the citizens and residents of Brunei Darussalam from the negative effects of tobacco usage and tobacco products," the Health Minister said.
The lies or myths surrounding tobacco are deliberately put into circulation by the tobacco companies not only to make sure that their products remain in circulation against the threats they face but also to push their sales as part of their survival and expansion strategies. Shorn of any moral foundation, these killer companies are caught up in a desperate situation of not 'do or die' but of 'kill or die'. They get fresh leases of life by inventing new ways of marketing that give them license to indulge in killing sprees and orgies of mass murder.
Eying for hefty profits at an enormous cost to the public health, the tobacco giants continue to operate their 'death trade' enjoying complete immunity and staying beyond accountability under the state patronage mostly in the developing countries. . . .
It has been the mission of premier national anti-tobacco organisations ADHUNIK and CAT (Coalition Against Tobacco) to dismantle the smokescreen erected by tobacco companies around their toxic products to enable the people to see the light of the truth that lay buried under the trash of smoked ashes. As anti-tobacco campaigners, we must renew our pledge on WNTD 2007 to continue our all-out war on tobacco until we can rid the world from its scourge beginning with Bangladesh.
That deaths from diseases that are caused by tobacco smoking have been estimated at 10 million worldwide by 2010, and this will be more people than those who will lose lives in the same period through malaria, tuberculosis, measles and road accidents combined is a frightening revelation.
It is true the Malawi economy depends on tobacco sales since this crop is highest foreign exchange earner but that does not stop government from regulating smoking of cigarettes in a variety of ways.
The problem with smoking is that there are passive smokers . . .
As Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) observed on the commemoration of the World No Tobacco Day June 11 the country has solid policies on TB and HIV/Aids why does it not have a similar drive against smoking? Cama also found it necessary that every Malawian should play an active role in making our environment smoke free. This is our country no one will keep it clean for us other than ourselves.
Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Richard Kamwi, officially expressed Namibia's support for 'World No Tobacco Day', in Windhoek this week.
This year's commemoration, which seeks to spread information globally on the dangers of tobacco use and why tobacco smoking is a public health priority, is held under the theme: 'Smoke-Free Environments.'
"Making work and public places 100 percent smoke-free inside will keep the bodies in these places smoke-free inside too. Thus, I wish to urge the Namibian nation to claim their right to be 100 percent smoke-free inside primarily for the promotion of good health," said Kamwi. . . .
Statistics compiled in 2000 in Namibia indicate a smoking prevalence of over 45 percent. In that year, 30 males per 100 000 died of trachea, lung and bronchus cancer, representing a mortality rate of 25.5 percent. The same year (2000) saw 96 males per 100 000 die of lip, oral cavity and pharynx cancer. . . .
The Tobacco Bill was first drafted between 1992 and 1993 and was tabled in parliament in 2005. The Bill has not yet been passed by parliament.
Once the Tobacco Control Act is passed, it will ban smoking in public places, which is blamed for deaths and diseases such as cancers, tuberculosis and stillbirths.
Tobacco continued to be sold normally on Wednesday at Lilongwe Auction Floors and people on the streets in the Capital City puffed cigarettes away on a day the United Nations set aside to sensitize people on dangers of smoking.
The World No Tobacco Day is commemorated on May 31 but in Malawi the activities to mark the day were only marked Thursday because of the death of First Lady Ethel Mutharika.
A press release from the Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA) said it was vital people knew the dangers of smoking, but even so people in Lilongwe seemed not to know of the day, especially set aside to protect non-smokers mainly children and women from the effects of second-hand smoke.
A tour to the auction floors on Wednesday found business as usual and there was no lull in auctioning tobacco, the country's biggest forex earner.
The world celebrated World No Tobacco Day on May 31 with the theme 'Smoke Free Environment: Protecting Women and Children From Tobacco'.
However, Malawi commemorated the day Wednesday led by a briefing by Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama). The association's director Willie Kalonga said it was important that the country should regulate tobacco smoking if the country is to become smoke free.
"Sometimes we take things for granted. What don't know is that even second hand smoking is dangerous. But as country I think it's time that we come up with a policy that should stop the liberty of smoking anyhow. It is very unfortunate that Malawi has no policy on control of tobacco smoking," he said.
Kalonga also bemoaned the lack of political will on the part of government to endorse the Tobacco Control Framework Convention, which was enacted in 2003 and has about 142 countries singing it, with Tanzania being the latest signatory.
According to the World Health Organization, water-pipe tobacco smoking is becoming a global epidemic. Water pipes, also known as hookahs, narghiles, shishas and gozas, have been used for centuries in other regions of the world and are often mistakenly believed to be a safe form of tobacco use.
Within the past few years, I have noticed a remarkable increase in the number of hookah bars in my own city. On any given evening, it is easy to find small groups huddled around individual hookahs, smoking through these water pipes into the early hours of the morning.
Many physicians are becoming concerned about the health risks associated with water-pipe smoking. While discussing hookah use with friends or patients, I am repeatedly told by its patrons that hookah use is "safe" or "non-addictive." . . .
As the WHO attempts to bring global awareness to this issue, I encourage physicians, parents, colleagues and friends to help educate one another on the health hazards of hookah smoking. I believe that the many misconceptions surrounding water-pipe smoking have led to its widespread use in the past decade. While more research is being conducted on water-pipe smoking, I would simply advise against it. As with most recreational drugs, the long-term risks to your health are never worth that temporary high.