Public Expresses Opinions On Public Ban On Smoking

The New Statesman has sampled opinions of the public concerning the passage of the Public Health Bill by Parliament on Wednesday.

This was after the Deputy Minister of Health, Rojo Mettle-Nunoo moved the motion for the Third Reading of the bill after it had been taken through a second consideration on the request of the Chairman of the Health Committee of Parliament, Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak.

According to David Addi Kodjo, a teacher, the passage of the bill couldn’t have come at the right now.

“Personally, I applaud our legislators for passing this bill. It will go a long way to boost the human resource of the nation considering the number of people who die every year to smoking. Though I know people will still smoke in their homes, I think it’s better than allowing them to do it in public”.

Fisca Kusiwaa, a third year student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology said though she welcomes the passage of the bill, she would have preferred a complete ban on smoking both in public and even in homes.

“I think we will get there one day, a time will come when a law will ban people from smoking irrespective of where they find themselves. I know people will say it’s their right to smoke but this is something which is a silent killer.”

She added that, she finds it difficult to comprehend why a normal person will go ahead and smoke even after reading a warning on the packet which states the harmful effects of smoking.

For Micheal Darko, a lecturer at the Regent University of Science and Technology in Accra, he sometimes finds it uncomfortable when he visits a public place and people shamelessly smoke in the full glare of everybody. He told the New Statesman how he nearly incurred the wrath of one smoker after politely asking him to find an appropriate place to smoke.

The bill is yet to be presented to the President for his assent.

Source: Nana Yaw Dwamena/The Statesmanonline