Sierra Leone is now the latest of 38 international locations within the WHO African area to have enacted a invoice into legislation to guard its inhabitants in opposition to the dangerous results of tobacco and nicotine merchandise. The Tobacco and Nicotine Management Act of 2022 was unanimously handed into legislation on 3 August 2022 by the nation’s legislation makers. The brand new legislation seeks to regulate and regulates the manufacturing, manufacturing, importation, packaging and labeling, promoting, promotion and sponsorship, sale and use of tobacco, tobacco merchandise and different nicotine merchandise in Sierra Leone.
As soon as assented to by the President, the nation will go into full implementation of the provisions of this public well being instrument to guard individuals from the well being, social and financial burdens related to tobacco use and publicity to tobacco merchandise.
This legislation takes cognizance of all types of tobacco and nicotine merchandise together with the rising types of tobacco similar to e-cigarettes. The Act bans all method of smoking in public locations and all types of commercial of tobacco and nicotine merchandise.
“It is a exceptional success for public well being in Sierra Leone and WHO is proud to have labored very carefully with the federal government, the civil society and the completely different companions which have supported the method through the years for the event of such complete tobacco management regulation”, says Dr Steven Velabo Shongwe, WHO Consultant in Sierra Leone. “WHO will proceed to assist the subsequent steps to develop the implementation methods and tips, public training for elevated consciousness of the legislation to make sure compliance. We are going to present strategic technical help to construct required capacities of the important establishments and assist mobilize assets for efficient implementation and enforcement of the provisions of the legislation”.
Enactment of the invoice brings into drive the total domestication of the provisions of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), a treaty that was adopted on the World Well being Meeting in 2003. Sierra Leone ratified the extensively embraced world treaty in 2009, amongst other countries in Africa to foster the safety and promotion of public well being in opposition to the worldwide tobacco epidemic
Tobacco is the main explanation for untimely deaths and preventable illness burden on the earth. In response to WHO, tobacco kills half of all long-term people who smoke from many alternative nontransmissible or noncommunicable ailments together with most cancers, diabetes, lung and coronary heart ailments.
The tobacco epidemic is on the rise in Sierra Leone. The Demographic Well being Survey (DHS2019) estimated that about 18% of males and three% of ladies between 15-49 years in Sierra Leone are tobacco customers and the prevalence of smoking is on the rise primarily amongst younger individuals, regardless of its well-known dangerous results on well being.
In March 2017, the WHO FCTC 2030 Project supported Sierra Leone amongst 15 different low and middle-income international locations to develop and implement efficient, evidence-based tobacco management measures with funding from the UK and Australian governments, later joined by Norway. The Mission contributed considerably within the growth and finalization of the Tobacco and Nicotine Management Act 2022. The Mission additionally facilitated an funding case which amongst different issues confirmed that tobacco use killed an estimated 3,300 individuals in 2017, and the full lack of 404 billion Leones from tobacco use, 73% of which have been from financial productiveness loss. Catastrophic out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures have been additionally related to tobacco-related illness burden in Sierra Leone contributing to elevated poverty amongst households and communities, therefore undermining efforts in the direction of common well being protection, in addition to in reaching the nation’s Sustainable Improvement Targets targets.
Efficient implementation of the provisions of this Act will promote public well being, improve human capital growth by stopping younger individuals from initiating tobacco use, assist present tobacco customers to stop and defend non-smokers from the dangers and illness burden related to publicity to tobacco merchandise in Sierra Leone.