Gambia: National Tobacco Control Policy Draft Validated

Source from:  The Daily Observer  07/30/2013

Raid-The Gambia, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and World Health Organisation, in collaboration with the members of the Multi-sector Technical Working Group on Tobacco Thursday validated the National Tobacco Control Policy Draft, at the National Nutrition Agency (NaNa).

The goal of this policy is to ensure effective implementation of obligations The Gambia has undertaken to protect against tobacco-related harm and promote health and other related issues in line with other relevant national, international and regional treaties.

Among the objectives of the policy are to reduce and subsequently prevent tobacco consumption, nicotine addiction and exposure to tobacco smoke, and also to protect tobacco control policies from commercial and vested interests of tobacco industries, importers and wholesalers.

Speaking at the occasion, the director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Modou Njai, affirmed that this is the first time the country is coming up with a tobacco policy. The Gambia, he noted, has made giant strides in the area of tobacco control and prevention and that the country is leading in the area of tobacco control in the sub-region. Njai thanked The African Tobacco Control Consortium for funding the activities of Raid-The Gambia in the area of tobacco control.

Sambujang Conteh, director of Raid-The Gambia, described the validation of the Tobacco Policy as historic. He informed that it was supposed to take the technical working group on tobacco six months but that because of the commitment and dedication of members it took the group three months to come up with a draft tobacco policy.

Conteh lamented that in The Gambia thousands of people die due to second hand smoking. He thus called for urgent action as a country to protect the present and future generation from the dangers associated to tobacco use. Enditem