Antitobacco advocates, government officials and representatives of the tobacco industry participated in a 2 day consensus meeting about the new tobacco control bill.
Source: Zambia Daily Mail, article by Darlington Mwendabai
The draft Tobacco Control Bill will help Government curb imports of flavoured cigarettes, National Tobacco Control focal point person John Mayeya has said.
Mr Mayeya, who is also a mental health specialist in the Ministry of Health, said Government is against tobacco imports which are harmful, especially to the youths, who risk being addicted to flavoured cigarettes.
He said this on Monday at Chainama Hotel in an interview in Lusaka at a two-day consensus meeting on the Tobacco Control Bill.
The meeting has attracted stakeholders from the tobacco industry and those from the health sector.
Zambia, in 2008, signed the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco in an effort to make public places smoke-free areas.
He said the concern by other stakeholders over the imports of flavoured cigarettes will be addressed in the draft bill once it is finalised.
Mr Mayeya said the consensus meeting will also help to demystify myths like people saying Government is calling for a complete ban on the production of tobacco.
He said the prohibition of tobacco products and smoking in public does not mean tobacco production has been banned.
He said instead, what is being discouraged is the consumption of the harmful product.
“One of the objectives of this meeting is to get input from the tobacco and health industries before the bill is passed into law,” he said.
He said the tobacco industry in the past two years contributed over US$ 90 million to the treasury in form of revenues.
However, he said Zambia does now know how much is being used on expenses to treat tobacco-related illnesses by the Ministry of Health.
Mr Mayeya said the bill once put in place will help address the fragmented legislation on tobacco, adding that tobacco small-scale farmers have since started calling for research on alternative crops to replace tobacco.
The Tobacco Free Association of Zambia (TOFAZA) executive director Brenda Chitindi, in a separate interview, said TOFAZA’s involvement in the formulation of the Tobacco Control Bill is timely.
And British American Tobacco Zambia (BAT) human resources and corporate affairs manager Muzyamba Chibbabbuka said the bill is welcome.
He said the tobacco industry is expecting a balanced legislation that will address health concerns of tobacco smokers and the tobacco players in the industry.
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