Afrigather Port Louis – Sutrajeet Ghuburrun was 16 when he smoked his first cigarette. Over the following 40 years, the taxi driver from Bel Air, a village within the east of Mauritius, smoked between 15 and 20 cigarettes a day. Though he had lengthy recognized concerning the harms of smoking, it was solely in 2022, following a coronary angioplasty (a process to open narrowed arteries), that he lastly give up. He’s now extra well being aware: the 56-year-old says he has adopted a day by day strolling routine and tries to sensitize these round him in opposition to this extremely damaging behavior. “I really feel a lot more healthy now,” he says. “I’m consuming and sleeping effectively.”
Ghuburrun’s story just isn’t unusual in Mauritius, the place multiple in three males smoke; that quantity will increase to 48% amongst males between the ages of 25 and 34. However that’s beginning to change. In 2022, the Mauritian authorities launched into a concerted drive to cut back smoking. Mauritius has since launched a raft of latest measures together with stricter antismoking rules and taxation, whereas additionally scaling up consciousness campaigns and free cessation help. All this types a part of the nation’s Nationwide Motion Plan for Tobacco Management (NAPTC) 2022‒2026, which enhances the nation’s efforts to realize the UN’s Sustainable Improvement Objective dedicated to good well being and wellbeing.
The Public Well being (Restrictions on Tobacco Merchandise) Laws 2022 present the legislative framework to control conventional tobacco merchandise and ban snuff, chewing tobacco and newer technology-based merchandise corresponding to e-cigarettes. These rules limit smoking in public locations and prohibit the sale of tobacco merchandise in a radius of 200 metres round academic establishments and sports activities services. Bans on tobacco promoting and promotion have been bolstered. As of 31 Might 2023, it’s obligatory for importers and producers to submit yearly experiences on substances, emissions and gross sales of tobacco merchandise.
“Mauritius is the primary African nation to have efficiently applied plain packaging with a set of eight rotating pictorial well being warnings with a better share show,” says Damini Mohur, tobacco management focus for the Ministry of Well being and Wellness of the Republic of Mauritius.
In 2023, this complete tobacco management coverage noticed Mauritius change into simply the third nation on the earth to undertake all World Well being Group (WHO) advisable MPOWER measures to the very best degree. MPOWER consists of six “excessive influence” measures designed to reduce the demand for tobacco merchandise. Following within the footsteps of Brazil and Turkey, Mauritius has since been joined by the Netherlands.
The Minister of Well being and Wellness, Dr Kailash Jagutpal, now hopes to see the influence of those measures mirrored within the actuality on the bottom. “I’m proud that the Authorities of Mauritius has efficiently applied the MPOWER measures of WHO’s Framework Conference on Tobacco Management. I hope we are going to see a decline within the incidence of tobacco-use within the subsequent Noncommunicable Illness Survey.” The following version of this five-yearly train is slated for 2026.
In accordance with Dr Balkrish Beedassy, the point of interest for tobacco cessation companies on the Ministry of Well being and Wellness, introducing the brand new measures collectively is vital to Mauritius’s efforts to curb the tobacco epidemic. “A partial strategy is not going to work,” he says. “However after we implement these measures as a complete, we will successfully scale back the prevalence of tobacco use in each adults and adolescents.”
There are already indicators that the nation’s daring strategy is starting to bear fruit. Though no official surveys have but been carried out because the implementation of the NAPTC 2022‒2026 to gauge its influence on smoking prevalence, there was a rise within the variety of offences reported beneath the Public Well being (Restrictions on Tobacco Merchandise) Laws 2022. This means a rising consciousness of the brand new restrictions amongst varied arms of legislation enforcement.
With help from WHO and different companions, 300 officers from the Customs Workplace, the Nationwide Agricultural Merchandise Regulatory Workplace, the Ministry of Well being and Wellness’s Public Well being and Meals Security Inspectorate and the Mauritius Police Drive have been skilled on the brand new tobacco management legislation.
“Mauritius has made spectacular strides when it comes to tobacco management,” says Dr Anne Ancia, WHO Consultant in Mauritius. “This is a crucial step within the journey in direction of a smoke-free Mauritius, however the brand new measures aren’t an finish in themselves – they’re a basis that should be consolidated and constructed upon.”
Going ahead, the onus might be on learning the influence of the tobacco management measures on the inhabitants, then adjusting and reinforcing them as crucial to maximise their influence on smoking prevalence. WHO will proceed to help Mauritius in its formidable endeavour to save lots of present and future generations from the manifold harms of tobacco.
