Nigeria: BATN, Others Task Lagos Assembly on Smoking Bill  

Source from:  Nigerian Tribune (ng)  05/21/2013

BRITISH American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) has expressed its support for the passage of what it described as a balanced and evidence-based public place smoking bill by the Lagos State House of Assembly.

This is just as the company lauded the assembly for proactively coming up with a bill to address the issue of smoking in public.

The company made this known during the public hearing for the bill at the state House of Assembly, adding that the company believed a workable bill would help reduce the impact of tobacco on public health in the country.

Speaking at the public hearing, the Assistant Secretary General of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr Anthony Ibafor, said the congress was against the bill, as it would, on the long run, lead to unemployment.

Distributors and representatives of restaurants, bars and café owners also agreed that the passage of the bill, in its current form, would have a negative impact on their businesses.

They all unanimously tasked the legislators to be clear on the specified smoking areas, by including designated smoking areas in the bill and also to give them enough time to meet up with the provision for display signs.

Presenting their memoranda, representatives of Nigerian Tobacco Control Alliance, consisting of 40 civil society organisation, Nurudeen Ogbara, commended the assembly for championing the course of democracy, while he faulted the bill, saying it was limited in its scope to aid the course of public health.

Head of Regulatory Affairs, BATN, Mr Sola Dosunmu, said BATN had always supported appropriate regulation for the tobacco industry in Nigeria, adding that any proposed regulation must not force the regulated businesses out of operation.

He, however, advocated ban of sales of cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18, higher than the age of 15 proposed in the bill. Enditem