AS India joins the list of countries that prohibit smoking in public places perhaps we could pose a little and ask ourselves whether such bans are an end in themselves.The country, which is estimated to have about 200 million smokers, took the measure the other week as one of the ways to protect non-smokers and also relieve itself from the heavy burden of treating diseases resulting from tobacco use.
One wonders whether India, whose population is above 1 billion people, will manage to control smoking of such a big number of smokers if a country like Tanzania with less than 40 million people and just a fraction of smokers has so far failed to enforce such a ban.
Smoking in public places has been banned in Tanzania under a law that came into effect on July 1, 2003.
Under the Tobacco Products (regulation) Act 2003 it’s illegal to smoke inside public transport, hospitals, schools and many other public places.
It is also an offence to sell tobacco products to persons under the age of 18 and the government called for the setting up of special smoking areas at places of work or entertainment so as to protect the non-smokers.
The Act also bans the advertising of tobacco on radio, TV and in newspapers and the government is supposed to issue guidelines on sites where tobacco advertising can be allowed.
The aim of the Act is to reduce the use of tobacco products in the country in order to reduce the occurrence of diseases that are brought about by smoking.
The law was also expected to protect non-smokers and educate smokers on the importance of quitting smoking and thereby ‘create an environment that will help to make the society a non-smoking one’ according to the government.
Several years down the line, cigarette smoking in Tanzania is everywhere right, left and centre! It's as if there is no any law in place that prohibits it.
I stand to be corrected but so far I've not heard of anyone being arraigned to courts of law to answer charges of committing such an offence despite it being committed openly almost everywhere.
Sometimes the members of the law enforcing agencies such as the police, prison warders, soldiers and governments officials are the culprit themselves. So how can we expect them to arrest their fellow culprits?
No wonder the ban has never been enforced in any part of the country todate despite having become operational for some years now.
Other countries in the region such as Uganda and Kenya have also passed regulations against smoking in public places but enforcement of the same has remained to be more of a pipe dream.
Similar bans are also found in other countries such as Norway, Australia, Canada, UK and France, among many others.
The laws require the designation of areas for smoking so as to save non-smokers.
However, leniency in enforcement has remained to be a big problem in most of these countries leaving non-smokers at the mercy of reckless smokers.
In some countries where there is a relative enforcement, smokers resort to smoking along corridors or in washrooms to avoid arrest but this is equally dangerous because such places are accessible to the general public.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (UEPA) says that research has proven that particulate matter and toxic gases of cigarette smoke can remain suspended in the air of a room, car or attached to walls, furnishings, and materials in the room, long after smoking has ceased.
This, UEPA cautions, can trigger health problems to people who thereafter enter the room, car or building.
It’s unfortunate that the tendency in many countries has been emphasis on passing laws that prohibit smoking in public places with less attention in raising public awareness of the effects of smoking.
As a result, the public doesn’t offer the necessary support in enforcing the bans and therefore render the whole move ineffective.
For instance, the law doesn’t talk about household settings in which children and spouses of smokers can equally be affected by exposure to cigarette smoke simply because this is happening in a private place.
Try to imagine the India’s situation, how many policemen does the country require to monitor the over 200 million smokers? What if just a quarter of them decide to defy the ban, will the country’s cells be enough for remanding them as they wait to taken to courts?
In such a scenario, awareness creation campaign on the negative effects of cigarette smoking could be the right option than simply passing bans whose reach is limited to public places.
Even the general public, once made conscious of the likely effects to human health and the environment, won’t tolerate anyone smoking in prohibited areas. So they’ll be guarding on behalf of the law enforcement agencies.
Education to the law enforcers is also vital because the current trend shows that they offer little attention to environmental ‘crimes’ such as smoking in public. May be to them they’re things deserving no attention at all.
Again deliberate efforts to discourage smoking among youth are of paramount importance because many smokers start experiment when still young.
In many countries youth and children start embracing the culture of smoking due to peer pressure and exposure to western life styles.
“It’s a big threat as at such an age, many youngsters tend to start experimenting with smoking, among many other bad behaviours including drug abuse,” a Public Health Specialist Dr. Victoria Mukasa cautions.
She associates smoking among young people to peer pressure which relates cigarette smoking with success whereby famous and successful people such as sportsmen, singers and TV stars are portrayed in the media smoking.
“Smoking to most young people symbolizes independence, freedom, maturity and hence triggers their interest,” she says.
Her position is also shared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which says that seven out of every ten smokers start smoking when they were teenagers.
Mukasa calls for awareness creation campaigns against smoking and the enforcement of the laws against smoking so as to save the society especially the innocent non-smokers.
“If people especially the youth were equipped with all this knowledge, they wouldn't be appealed by the 'sweet' advertising they see in the media. They normally get trapped due to lack of adequate and appropriate information,” she says.
But due to lack of knowledge and effective enforcement of the respective laws, many lives are still being jeopardized on a daily basis.
Smoking is reported to be a major cause of heart diseases, different types of cancers, impotence and barrenness among men and women respectively.
The same is also a burden to countries’ economies as huge sums of money are spent in dealing with such illnesses.
Early this week the Executive Secretary of the Tanzania Tobacco Control Forum (TTCF), Lutgard Kagaruki, revealed that over Tshs. 30 billion is spent in the country annually for treating tobacco-caused ailments at the Ocean Road Cancer Institute in Dar es Salaam alone.
“These figures are from one health facility only. If taken together with the cost of treating patients from other hospitals, the amounts could be staggering,” she said during a workshop in the city.
She cited a study by the World Health Organisation that found out that for every shilling earned from selling tobacco, Tshs. 6 were spent on treating tobacco-related diseases.
Todate I’ve not heard of anything like a countrywide campaign against smoking as it is the case with other diseases like malaria, polio and Aids. It’s as if effects of smoking are not equally dangerous.
All these signify the need for a massive awareness creation campaign that, with support from legal prohibitions, could help in stopping cigarette smoking among Tanzanians and therefore make the country a non-smoking zone.
