Control of tobacco is good news

SOME may say this is not good for business, but the news that importers and manufacturers of tobacco products will now have to pay a license fee to operate their business in the country is welcome news.
It is frightening to see and hear that the use of tobacco products, particular cigarette smoking, has increased many times in PNG over the last 20 years.
We are now ranked as the highest user of tobacco products in the Western Pacific Region.
Tobacco use is an important risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease, strokes, and peripheral vascular disease.
Results from a Global Youth Tobacco survey, conducted in PNG in 2016, showed that 53 per cent of young people (aged 13-15) are regularly smoking.
This rate is likely to be higher than reported with the increasing availability of counterfeit cigarettes and illicit tobacco.
This is where the new Tobacco Control Act, which was passed into law in 2016, comes in.
The purpose of the act is to place controls on the sale, use and promotion of tobacco products.
It will use the mechanisms open to Government, and through new regulations to be released later this year, to significantly reduce the harmful use of tobacco products.
That will include strict controls on advertising and much stronger control on making smoking attractive to young people.
Controlling advertising on smoking through the mainstream media is manageable, but the same cannot be said about social media.
There were suggestions to stop the sale of cigarettes in packets less than 25, and the sale of packages of loose tobacco of less than 25 grams in shops, with the assumption that it will discourage especially young people from smoking.
Realistically, young people do not necessarily have to purchase this from shops.
Take a look on the streets: the business of informal sector is thriving and a vendor who has been selling tobacco products has seen the return on investment.
It is not for a rocket scientist to see that vendors will capitalise on the ban, purchase in bulk and continue selling.
If the demand is high, the cost increases also.
Currently, a loose cigarette is selling at K1.20 on the street and from a packet of 25, a calm K30 is collected.
A packet purchased is around K24/K25 depending on where it’s bought.
That is cigarettes alone.
Loose tobacco also is another product which vendors collect well from its sale.
Who will take on the responsibility to penalise those who defy the instruction of selling loose cigarettes?
The Tobacco Control Act was passed by Parliament in 2016 and certified by the Speaker in early 2017 to become operational immediately.
In April 2017, the National Executive Council decided to allow a year grace period for manufacturers and importers to adjust to the new legislation.
Now that the grace period is over, the Health Department must enforce the law because the use and the consumption of tobacco products poses serious health risks and contributes to the high cost of health care in PNG
It must be done, otherwise, it will only become another white paper collecting dust at Waigani.
The challenge will be controlling the sale of tobacco products out on the streets.
It is now important to the Government and all concerned stakeholders that this damage to the health of our people and our development is halted.