Osun House bans smoking in public places

OSUN State House of Assembly has passed a bill prohibiting smoking in public places into law.

While passing the bill into law, the Speaker, Honourable Adejare Bello, appealed to the media to assist in promoting healthy living by sensitising the public to the dangers in tobacco smoking.

Honourable Bello said though smoking was a matter of choice, but the government must be able to protect non-smokers from dangers attached to it, hence the need for the enactment of the law.

Entitled Osun State Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Bill, 2009, the bill prohibited smoking in any part of an enclosed or partially enclosed public place or workplace.

According to the letters of the bill, tobacco smoking was prohibited within 500 metres radius of facilities like schools, health centres, sporting areas and any other place prescribed by the government for public use.

Smoking is also to be prohibited in court buildings, factories, cinema halls, theatres, video houses, disco halls and any other entertainment facilities at any time during which it is open to the public.

The state commissioner for environment is empowered to approve any part of the public places as a designated area for the purpose of smoking.

Any person who contravenes the provisions of the bill risks, on conviction, a fine of between N10,000 and N20,000 and or a jail term from three to six months, while a corporate offender shall be liable to a fine of N250,000.

SOURCE

‘13m Nigerians’re Smokers’

From Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo,

Osun State, Nigeria: The average rate of active smokers in Nigeria was yesterday put at 13 million , while adult smoking rate was put at 17 percent.
Speaking at the sensitisation meeting for members of Osun State House of Assembly on Osun State proposed Smoke Free Bill, the State Commissioner for Health,Lanre Afolabi, noted that since half smokers die of tobacco related diseases, it also showed that over 6.5 million Nigerians are on death row due to tobacco addiction.

The commissioner stressed that it was alarming that in 2003 the overall prevalence of tobacco for youths in Nigeria was 18.1 percent and for senior executive 13.9 percent. He also gave the figure of the rapidly growing annual average rate of tobacco use in Africa and developing countries as 4.7 percent compared with the 3.4 percent of other countries.

He pointed out that in 2006 , the data recorded was 9.527 tobacco related causes in 26 state owned health facilities, and within the same period. The commissioner said the bill was set to protect the present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption in the state.

While speaking on the Bill, the Speaker, Osun State House of Assembly, Hon. Adejare Bello, said the Bill seeks to provide a legal framework for the control of the use of tobacco products and exposure to tobacco smoke, in order to protect the health of the individual. He described tobacco smoking as a major risk factor for about 44 different kind of diseases, saying there are over 4,000 carcinogens in tobacco smoking.

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