Ministry eager to enforce anti-tobacco law

The Ministry of Health is currently following up on restaurants and other facilities to ensure that they all comply with the Control of Smoking Act (CSA), Anti-Tobacco Network (ATN) interim director Dr Bontle Mbongwe has said.
 Mbongwe was speaking in an interview after the World No Tobacco Day commemoration last Friday, noting that the public is becoming aware of laws surrounding tobacco advertising, promotion and tobacco industry interference.
Mbongwe said her organisation has been receiving calls to alert them on some of the violations of the Act and that the media has taken interest in reporting violations of the Act. "The ATN carried out an assessment of the tobacco control situation in Botswana which identified violations and/or non-enforcement of the CSA and we are happy to report that the Ministry of Health is following up on restaurants and other facilities to ensure that they all comply with the Control of Smoking Act," Mbongwe said.
Some of the CSA provisions include smoking in public places, the sale of tobacco products to minors.  However, law enforcement officers' lack of familiarity with the Act has led to its poor implementation.According to Mbongwe, the current law is not comprehensive enough as it has gaps that do not cover issues of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and as a result the tobacco industry continues to advertise through fashion targeting the youth and women and to advertise at the points of sale.
She added that the tobacco industry trains retailers and street vendors on how to display tobacco products in a manner that is attractive to influence young people and other vulnerable groups to buy tobacco products."The current law doesn't have provisions that ban tobacco industry related social corporate responsibility activities and as a result the tobacco industry donates tobacco display cabinets and promotional materials to street vendors and supermarkets," she added.
All is not lost as Mbongwe said the country is currently developing a tobacco control legislation that will compliment the Framework Convention Tobacco Control (FCTC). She described this as a major step that will take Botswana closer to accomplishing the FCTC requirements.  She overemphasised the need for government to step-up the process of developing the legislation as well as putting in place mechanisms (financial and technical) to implement such a law.  Recently, the Minister of Health, Reverend Dr John Seakgosing, appealed to all private companies and institutions that have no relationship with the tobacco industry to discourage tobacco advertising.
And speaking at the University of Botswana Health Fair held in Gaborone, the minister said any form of tobacco advertising through radio, television, electronic and print media should be defied.  He noted that Batswana should be made aware that they should not allow the tobacco industry to use them and their children to advertise tobacco products.
"I urge parents and guardians to be vigilant and ensure that they do not accept or buy any products bearing any tobacco brand name", he said, adding that the tobacco industry advertises its products indirectly and deliberately through fashion.Lately in Botswana and in the African region, more tobacco promotional items like tissue holders, house-mats, large umbrellas for restaurants and bars, are distributed for free by the tobacco industry, he said.
The minister further said his ministry was working hard to identify funding to develop counter adverts. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco kills nearly six million people annually of which more than 600,000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke.  The world commemorated the World No Tobacco Day on Friday under the theme, 'Ban Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship'.