Tobacco News and Interesting Information

THE Ministry of Health has directed the National Bureau of Standards to enforce a regulation on the packaging and labelling of tobacco products.

According to the primary healthcare state minister, Emmanuel Otaala, cigarette packets must have large health warnings.

He explained that the caution must cover over 50% of the principal display area of the packet.

Addressing journalists at the ministry headquarters last Thursday, Otaala noted that companies in Europe had obliged to the regulation but those in Uganda use false deceptive labelling.

The Director General of Health Services, Dr. Sam Zaramba, advised tobacco growers to grow alternative crops to save lives.

"Smoking causes 80% of the diseases. Assuming we stopped selling tobacco, we would have healthy people and spend less on healthcare. The diseases caused by smoking are chronic so one has to keep on getting treatment, hence living a person with no money," Zaramba noted.

Dr. Sheila Ndyanabangi, a ministry principal medical officer, said in the past, smoking was sanctioned because the Government was ignorant about the effects of tobacco.

"The Government policy is that smoking is very dangerous and should be discouraged. The rights of non-smokers should also be protected," she argued.

She added that Uganda signed a World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2004, which requires governments to ban tobacco advertising and compel manufacturers to label cigarettes with a big and clear warning that "tobacco kills." She said Ugandan had not yet ratified the convention.