Fast track bill to ban smoking in public places

Page 15 March 25, 2010
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

THE Member of Parliament (MP) for Krachi East, Mr Wisdom Gidisu, has called for the fast tracking of a bill to ban smoking in public places to protect Ghanaians from contracting diseases such as tuberculosis (TB).
In a statement to commemorate this year’s World Tuberculosis Day, which fell yesterday, the MP noted that Africa accounted for a quarter of the world’s TB cases with about 2.4 million cases and 540,000 deaths annually.
He indicated that Ghana recorded 15,298 cases in 2009, which was an increase from the 14,479 cases recorded in 2008.
Mr Gidisu, who is also the Chairman of the Health Committee of Parliament, explained that the day has, therefore been set aside to create the necessary awareness of the various stakeholders on the symptom, diagnosis and treatment of the diseases and the importance of its control.
He stated that the Ministry of Health, through the Ghana Health Service, had put in a lot of interventions in its quest to fight the disease, adding that at the moment, about 1,057 TB treatment centres and 274 diagnostic centre have been established.
Mr Gidisu said while the treatment of the disease had been reduced from eight to six months, adherence to TB treatment had also improved considerably with defaulter rate at its lowest level ever at 2.3 per cent and the treatment success rising to 85.3, which is above the WHO treatment success target for Africa.
He noted that the key challenge for the fight against the disease was low case of detection, explaining that the WHO estimated that Ghana should be detecting 203 per 100,000, but the country was detecting only 63 per 100,000.
Mr Gidisu said it meant that there might be a lot of Ghanaians undiagnosed, who were transmitting the disease to others.
He, therefore, called on all stakeholders to fight the disease head-on since any failure would ensure an uncontrolled epidemic of the disease, adding that if patients do not get the needed support to complete their treatment, Ghana might end up with more drug resistant form of TB.
The MP said in 2005, 46 African Health Ministers unanimously adopted a resolution and declared TB as an African emergency and therefore, called on Ghanaian authorities to consider the disease as a national security threat that deserve more attention from all stakeholders.
He said the year 2010 had been set aside as a year of the lung, adding that it had been discovered that millions of people around the world suffer each year from treatable and preventable chronic diseases such as asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia, which had long been neglected in public discourse.
Mr Gidisu, therefore, called for the need to increase awareness on the health of the lung and thus, used the occasion to advocate the fast tracking of a bill that would ban public smoking in the country.
In another development, the MP for Tarkwa Nsuaem Mrs Gifty Kusi has suggested to the Ghana Chamber of Mines, the Minerals Commission of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology to put together a bill on the “Polluter Pays Principle”, instead of the voluntary codes of conduct mining companies sign presently.
The MP made the call in a statement on cyanide spillage by mining companies and its effects on human beings.
She said there was the need for all mining communities to train community members as emergency response units to patrol the areas and report any occurrence as soon as possible in order to avoid situations where mining companies would either report to the Environmental Protection Council (EPA) on time or misreport the issue.*