By Yunus S Saliu
The Non-communicable Disease (NCD) unit under the Directorate of Health Promotion and Education, Ministry of Health Friday updated the public on the ongoing enforcement of the Tobacco Control Act 2016 during a press briefing held at the Central Medical Store Complex, Kotu.
Giving updates regarding the enforcement of the tobacco control Act 2016, Omar Badjie, Program Manager for the Non-Communicable Disease unit said as part of their mandate, every three months the unit gathers to share information on tobacco control enforcement.
He iterated that for the past few days their enforcement officers are in the field implementing the Tobacco Control Act 2016 and regulation 2019, noting these are the two laws that governed the control of tobacco in the country.
He said The Gambia, in Africa, is always used as a good example of a country that can country and implements the Tobacco Control Act effectively.
In the NCD unit crusade for the implementation of the Act, he said the media is very important in the dissemination of information jointly with them.
However, he noted that their campaign project on tobacco control is a one-year project which started in 2021 now in the final stage but because the country is proactive “the project has been extended for another year. So it will again run from January 2023 to December 2023, while every three months we do a review.”
The Project Manager outlined the main emphasis of the project which he said is on three thematic areas which he explained for clarity purposes.
More so, he dilated on the health risk of smoking tobacco while disclosing that a stick of cigarette contains 7000 different chemicals, therefore, smoking is dangerous to people’s health.
He used the occasion also to highlight some of the activities, and challenges the country is having when it comes to smoking and also the bad effect of smoking concerning the non-communicable diseases.
