By Janet Moriku

Arua

Police in West Nile has warned dealers in tobacco and its products against advertising saying they will be arrested and prosecuted. The West Nile Police Spokesperson Josephine Angucia was speaking during a community sensitization program on Radio Pacis Good morning West Nile show on Wednesday April 26 2023, about the dangers of tobacco and its products.  She said the country has a law that will be used to prosecute violators. “Parliament of Uganda enacted an act so as to control consumption of tobacco, so anyone who contravenes the tobacco control law will be arrested and prosecuted accordingly.

And there are a number of tobacco control laws which have been put in place, one of them is to have tobacco smoke free environment that is you are not supposed to smoke anywhere in public. Some of these public places include buses and any other public transport means, hotels, schools, office buildings, receptions, restaurants, clinics and hospitals. Then we have total ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. So anyone who goes advertising, promoting and sponsoring tobacco related activities minus abiding by this law will face it.”

Asked what penalties the violators will be charged with, Angucia said an individual will be fined 480,000 UGX while companies will pay 20million shillings.
“So if it is an individual, that individual will be charged 480,000 Ugandan shillings or imprisonment for not less than one year or both. But then if it is a corporation or that bigger company which deals in tobacco, they will have to pay a fine which is not less than 20 million Ugandan shillings.”

The Arua district health inspector Acidri Manase who appeared on the same show highlighted some of the dangers and effects of tobacco consumption. “Tobacco is a product that is consumed by the users in many ways, you know the manufacturers have come up with innovative ways.

Traditionally, when you want to spoke, people use local materials like papers, maize cobs and you smoke directly. And when you burn tobacco, science says over 29 chemicals end  up in the body and this exposes us to many diseases like cancer of the lungs, and once it passes the stage of management people die, there is also coronary heart diseases which are very expensive to manage since they need very sophisticated equipment to manage and yet our health care systems are not  well developed so economic sense comes in, you spend a lot of money, you will not be productive then you depend on others, there is also  cancers of the mouth, people have developed very terrible kind of wounds in their mouth.”

The Tobacco Act 2015 part three, number one states that “every person has a right to a tobacco smoke-free environment”.

COVER PHOTO: L-R Acidri Manase Arua district health inspector, Josephine Angucia, West Nile Police PRO and a colleague By Janet Moriku