’WHY CANT I JUST SMOKE IN
PEACE?’’...........
MAN WAS
BORN FREE BUT EVERYWHERE HE IS IN CHAINS… Jean - Jacques Rousseau.
The
slogans take different forms, the wordings vary, but the messages are one and the same:
’ The Federal
Ministry of Health warns that tobacco smoking is dangerous to your health.....
‘Smokers
are liable to die young.....
Others More Specific: ‘Smoking Kills......
The
most readily question to ask should be with blunt warnings like these, why
should an unsuspecting fellow be exposed to harm’s way. And thus this article
intends to ask a more rhetoric question:
Ø Are they aware that when they smoke, the person next to them is
liable to suffer a tobacco related disease...And that there are indeed laws
enacted prohibiting smoking in public places?
This piece is not intended to offend or
attack smokers; it is just a mere feeble attempt to educate everyone on some
basic truths…
Second
hand smoking is more dangerous than first hand smoking. When a person is
smoking, he exhales not just the tobacco but other impure substances that might
be in his body, which could also include diseases. Also, when a person smokes,he
has control of the quantity of tobacco that goes into his body but the innocent
by-stander, inhales everything unintentionally thereby exposing himself to a
lot of danger. Medically, it has been proven that smoking could aggravate
asthma, pneumonia, and bronchitis and impairs blood circulation, cancer and
many other deadly diseases; Medical doctors would know better. But this piece would
concern itself with that aspect of the Law that relates to the very act of
smoking.
There are both National and International
Laws prohibiting smoking in public places.
The first
International Public treaty on tobacco is the United Nations Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The treaty aims, amongst others, at
protecting present and future generations from the devastating health, social,
environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to
tobacco smoke.
Ghana
ratified the convention in 2004, other countries like Ireland, New Zealand,
Norway, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia also followed suit. The equivalent in
India is the Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules, 2008.
In
Nigeria, we have the Tobacco Control Act of 1990.The Law banning smoking in
Public Places in the FCT,2008. Sometime in October 2009, the Osun State House
of Assembly, passed a bill to prohibit smoking in public Places in that State.
The term “Public Places” can be said to include but not limited to:
·
Restaurants
and bar,
·
Government
buildings,
·
Hospitals,
·
Motor
parts,
·
Public
transportation facilities,
·
Bus
terminals,
·
Factories,
·
Cinemas,
·
Disco
halls,
·
Gardens
and Parks,
·
Police
stations and cell as well as
·
Residential
houses.
May
we also note that under some laws, the ban on smoking also prohibits access to
tobacco products within 500 metre radius of schools, hospitals and sports
facilities or any such facilities, while the commissioner of health is allowed
to approve designated smoking place.
Having established the fact that such
laws exist, it is unfortunate to note however, that many developing (?) Nations
like Nigeria, Ghana etc, are yet to enforce such laws. We do not have much to
say but to remind you that as much as you have a right to smoke, your neighbour
has a right to fresh air devoid of smoke/ tobacco because, your right starts
where your neighbours’ ends. The side effects of passive smoking cannot be over
emphasized, so also are the punishment accruable to the offender; You might
find yourself somewhere and you may be arrested for smoking in a public place,
we hate to put it to you that it might not be an excuse because ignorance of
the law is not an excuse also, the law is an okra soup, it draws!
QUESTIONS,Comments?
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