TOBACCO Control Consortium of Zambia chairperson, Fastone Goma has urged the media to support information dissemination on the enactment of the tobacco control law in order to regulate smoking, especially among the youth.
Proffessor Goma said enactment of the tobacco control legislation would be a game changer in as far as keeping citizens healthy and free from tobacco abuse.
He also called for the participation of lawmakers in advocating the enactment of the tobacco control law.
Prof Goma commended Minister of Health Sylvia Masebo for her contribution in advocating the enactment of the tobacco control law so that citizens could be protected from the harmful effects of smoking.
“We are in a hurry to see the benefits that would come out of the tobacco control law and because we had a delay in the enactment, we are hoping that we will accelerate the implementation.
We want to see that we have good data coming out of Zambia to see how many people are using tobacco and how many people are stopping to use tobacco,” Prof Goma said
Meanwhile, Prof Goma has called on the Ministry of Health to expedite publication of the results of the survey conducted to ascertain the number of youths engaging in tobacco consumption.
He said publication of the results of the survey would help to ascertain the extent to tobacco consumption was a problem, especially among the youth.
Prof Goma said access to such information would help to expedite enactment of the tobacco control legislation.
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