The Lagos State Government has said it will commence the enforcement of the anti-public smoking law in the state in August.
Governor Babatunde Fashola had in February signed the anti-smoking bill into law.
The law is expected to be enforced by the special task force of the state and the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency.
Key provisions of the bill included prohibition of smoking in hospitals, public shopping centres, public transportation, private cars (when there is more than one person in the car), school buses, cinemas and retails shops.
According to the General Manager of LASEPA, Mr. Rasheed Shabi, the law is not about stopping people from smoking, but preventing them from doing so in public places where vulnerable members of the society, including children, may be present.
Shabi, who spoke at a one-day advocacy and sensitisation campaign on the law in Lagos on Tuesday, added that smoke from cigarettes was a source of environmental pollution with its carbon dioxide emission, and the act must be restricted in public places.
"There will be designated areas for smoking. We are not saying people should not smoke because that will be a human rights issue but for smokers to do so in designated places," he said.
He said when the governor signed the bill into law in February; he gave six months' notice before the enforcement would begin adding that the six months would end in August.
Fashola, who was represented at the forum by the Special Adviser on Health, Dr. Yewande Adesina, said the state owed its residents the responsibility of ensuring good health which should not be endangered by another person's social or life habits.
He said, "It is a fact that there is a growing concern worldwide to regulate smoking in public places because of its effect on the smoker and the unsuspecting victim or secondary smoker.
"If you must smoke, do so with decency and protect other people from its harmful effect, especially the innocent, secondary smokers and the environment at large."
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Enforcement of anti-smoking law in Lagos begins in August
Enforcement of anti-smoking law in Lagos begins in August
NigerianEye
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Wednesday, May 14, 2014
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We need people like Fashola at the federal level to bring about changes we so desire in Nigeria. This policy will be very helpful to save lives.
ReplyDeleteI think generators are more deadly to the masses than cigarette smoke. I am not aware of any situation where a person has been confirmed dead from cigarette smoke while records abound of people who have died of carbon dioxide emission from generators. It would probably take 10,000 people smoking at the same time in the same place to emit the same amount of smoke that comes from a 40KVA generator which is the standard sets used by our big men and whose exhaust pipes are directed outside their homes.
DeleteThe LASG would save more lives if laws are also made to control the emission of smokes from generators.
Na that one they send u? Is not by force if u like smoke if u like dont smoke
ReplyDelete