The jovial mood of the Dhakals gets spoiled after the adjacent table-dwellers begin to curl puffs of smoke in the air.[break]
His young daughter, in a rather provocative temperament, tries to persuade the cigarette lovers to extinguish the smoldering fag, but only to see her endeavor turning futile.
A schoolteacher by profession, Ramesh Wosti makes frequent travels by public vehicles.
The elderly academician suffering from chronic bronchitis complains that he nearly “gets killed” suffocating every time he happens to encounter smokers in buses or microbuses. The plea to stop smoking, as usual, goes unheard.
The above instances are not just exceptions. More and more proletariats are falling prey to tobacco smoking and its use at public places which has been going unabated. The ordeal that people have to pass through at public places when they find a smoker enjoying his piece is an act that needs to be reprimanded and penalized.
However, the government dilly-dallying to enforce the Tobacco Control and Regulatory Act-2010, which will prohibit tobacco smoking and its use at public places, has been granting lease to the tobacco users to putting the lives of scores of people in hazardous condition.
According to Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital Senior Consultant Dr Rajendra Baral, the people who are in smokers’ surroundings share the same amount of health hazards as the smoker does, known as the risk of passive smoking.
Of the total smoke emitted from a burning cigarette, one third is inhaled by the smoker and the larger portion—two thirds—is released in the atmosphere.
“This fact is nerve-rattling, as passive smokers are at greater risk of being the victims of tobacco-borne diseases,” said Baral, who is also a member of Nepal Cancer Relief Society.
“As part of anti-tobacco campaign, we have requested the television and cinema artists to not to feature themselves in any advertisements that contain tobacco products. We also want tobacco products adverts taken off from the hoarding boards as well,” he added.
While the laws of land in almost all the countries worldwide curb tobacco smoking and use at public places, Nepal lags far behind to the promulgation of such a law. Though initiatives for such a noble cause were started a decade ago, the political bickering has hindered the campaign from taking a solid shape.
“We took pains to draft the anti-tobacco bill, which will curb tobacco smoking and use at public places, but unfortunately, our initiative has not yet been materialized,” lamented Shanta Lal Mulmi, Executive Director of Resource Center for Primary Health Care (RECPHEC).
“The bill was supposed to have been endorsed by the Parliament’s winter session but things did not go as expected,” he added.
According to him, Nepal had signed the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC)—an international convention – in 2003 and ratified it in 2006. By becoming a signatory to the convention, Nepal should have had enforced a law that prohibited tobacco smoking and use at public places.
“The modus operandi of the political leaders turning a deaf ear to such an act, which serves the interest of the common people, has even worried international rights bodies,” said Mulmi, adding, “I’m hopeful that the summer session of the House will endorse it.”
Although tobacco production and trade has been one of the most lucrative businesses for a handful of people, the fact that Nepal imports tobacco products worth Rs 28 billion annually paints a gloomy picture of the national economy.
A highly placed official at the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) said the bill got stuck midway as there was a debate between the ministry and tobacco entrepreneurs on how much space should be allotted in tobacco products packets for anti-tobacco messages.
The anti-tobacco bill has proposed that 70% space must be allotted in a tobacco packet for anti-tobacco messages, and that should include not only words but also pictures and sign languages. Anyone found flouting the law would be fined from Rs 100 to 100,000.
“Although this provision was agreed upon unanimously by the Parliamentary Legislative Committee, why did the bill not get tabled in the House?” wondered the official. “The health minister must have been reluctant to table it.”
The official said he had smelt a rat that the tobacco factory owners were piling pressure on the health minister not to table the bill as it could plunge the sales and ultimately take their business on the verge to collapse.
There was no point for the bill to hang in the balance otherwise, the official claimed.
Asked to comment, MoHP official Sagar Giri said the Ministry had done enough justice to the bill and now the ball remained in the party leaders’ court to give it a nod.
With hope, the bill will be able to find a place in this summer session of the Parliament.
As important as the bill’s endorsement is, equally important will be the efficacy of the implementing bodies to stop smoking in public places and to penalize those who are caught infringing the law.
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