The Federal Executive Council (FEC), presided by President Goodluck Jonathan has approved a fine of between N50,000 to six months  imprisonment or both for individuals who smoke in areas not designated.

The penalties for corporate offenders varied from N1million to N5million and one year to two years imprisonment for the chief executives of such firms.

It has also approved the total ban of all forms of advertisement of tobacco and would not accept gifts of any kind from the tobacco firms.

These are all contained in the approved draft National Tobacco Control Bill 2004 that would be sent to the National Assembly as an Executive Bill for promulgation into law.

Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, the Minister of Information, Mr. Laban Maku; and the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, disclosed  that considering the several health implications prevalent with consumption of tobacco, government needs to take actions that would deliberately protect the citizens.

 

Maku added that the draft  bill has in place measures to increase taxes on tobacco products as a way to discourage producers and consumers alike.

He said the draft bill also contained that 50 per cent of the packaging of tobacco is expected to be used to warn the public of the risks involved in smoking.

Chukwu said the government would set up a standing committee that would assist law enforcement agencies in implementing the law. The committee will compose of the federal ministry of health, justice, customs and all the major stakeholders that ought to be in such a committee.

He said the present administration decided to work on the Bill because the provisions of a similar one passed into law in 2001 were considered too weak.

The Health Minister  said some of the diseases linked to smoking are cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke; cancer, especially that of the lung; as well as chronic respiratory disorder.

He recalled that a Global Youth Tobacco Survey conducted in 2008 showed that 15 per cent of children between 13 years and 15 years are already smoking and another percentage exposed as passive smokers.

He said the Global Adult Tobacco Survey on its part showed that 10 percent of men in Nigeria smoke while 1.1 percent women smoke.

This, he explained, showed that almost six per cent of adults in Nigeria smoke.

Chukwu said, “The bill is to protect Nigerians against the harmful effects of tobacco. We know that tobacco is dangerous, tobacco is the cause of many deaths, causes so many illnesses. There are four main non communicable diseases including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory disorder and diabetics. Tobacco alone causes three out of these four illnesses- tobacco causes cardiovascular diseases, it is been known to cause heart attacks, hypertension and stroke, tobacco indeed causes cancer, cancer of various organs especially cancer of the lungs, tobacco is the cause for chronic respiratory disease.

“Another area is advertisement. Advertisement is totally banned  under this law so you cannot just go and advertise. Some states have already taken the lead like Cross River State, which passed its own law on advertisement of tobacco last year. Now we want to make it national. Any firm of advertisement is not permitted, either in broadcast, print, outdoor”, he said.

He said “individuals may pay fine of between N50,000. That is for someone who goes to a place clearly designated non smoking area, the judge could either give  you an option of fine or combine it with imprisonment of up to six months.

“Whereas, for companies, it varies from N1 million to as much as N5 million, imprisonment of those companies executives could vary from one to two years where they fall foul of the law.

On 50 per cent funds of tobacco packages to warning people about the use of  tobacco, the Minister said, “The  first country to start that was Australia, although it was taken to court, the government of Australia won.

“Then a fund to be known as the Tobacco Control Fund will also be established by this bills which will be funded by Federal, State  governments and individuals. The bill also proposes to ban every form of sponsorship by any tobacco company of any public event, when government is doing anything, they cannot sponsor, whether in Sports or seminars.

“We will not accept gifts from them, if a tobacco company wants to build school, we reject but we will accept when they have stop producing and selling.

“He said the areas that are being targeted include the environment. We want to produce 100 per cent tobacco free environment for people who do not want anything to do with tobacco use. And so places will be clearly designated whether public places, whether indoor or outdoor will be clearly designated as non smoking area.

“The responsibility, say for instance, a hotel rest on the owners of the hotel to clearly indicate the areas that are non smoking so that if you ever decide to go to a place that has been clearly designated non smoking area, you will be liable to being prosecuted and then the law will take its course”, he added.

Source: Sun