The Ministry of Health (MoH) together with the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and other stakeholders under the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is facilitating and revising for the adaptation of a comprehensive smoke-free policy in the country.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development outlines specifically the critical need for effective tobacco control in target 3 “strengthening the implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in all countries of which Ghana has been selected as a phase 3 WHO FCTC 2030 project country.
This gives Ghana the opportunity to accelerate tobacco control policy implementation and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) beyond health or well-being.
Ghana in meeting these targets under the WHO FCTC 2030 is expected to make the country a smoke-free environment by developing and implementing a comprehensive national tobacco control strategy, strengthening inter-agency coordination of WHO FCTC implementation through capacity building, facilitating policy revision for the adaptation of comprehensive smoke-free policies and implementation and enforcement of a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising and depiction in entertainment media.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Authority, madam Delese Darko observed that for Ghana to exhibit strong policy implementation as provided by part six of the public health Act 2012, (ACTS 851) and the Tobacco Control Regulations, 2016 (Ll 2247), the scarcity of resources has starved tobacco control enforcement of the relevant funds to propel the comprehensive implementation of the WHO FCTC especially in the strengthening of the tobacco control interagency coordination mechanism.
The minister for health, Mr. Kwaku Agyemang-Manu said “as a country, the political motivation to close the gap in tobacco control remains resolute and I dare say the vision of a tobacco free society is closer than ever”.
He however observed that Ghana still has a long way to go in the pursuit of attaining a tobacco free country.
“Key amongst the tobacco control challenges in Ghana is the absence of comprehensive smoke free policies, weak interagency coordination, and difficulties in implementing a total ban on tobacco products advertising”.
The director of tobacco and substances abuse directorate at the Food and Drugs Authority, Dr. Olivia Agyekumwaa Boateng said the law suggests that there should be a ban on smoking in public places but the problem is where it states that people can smoke in a designated area.
“For us we would think that if it was strictly no smoking in all public places then it makes the enforcement very easy. In fact the law for the FCTC recommendation is there should be no smoking in all public places and we have had the law for over 10 years. We think that going forward we need to do certain amendments. That is an aspect we will take to parliament to review it to a comprehensive smoke free environment”.
Tobacco kills more than 8 million people globally every year. More than 7 million of these deaths are from direct tobacco use and around 1.2 million are due to non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
In Ghana, more than 500,000 adults are estimated to smoke cigarette and other tobacco products on a daily basis, the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS, 2005) has estimated that the incident is prevalent among young people in the country and about 75 men die every week from cigarette smoking.
This evidently has placed a tremendous toll on global health and recognizably an impediment to the attainment of the sustainable development agenda.
The WHO FCTC project is being sponsored by the governments of Norway, Australia and United Kingdom.
