Accra, July 21, GNA – The Vision for
Alternative Development (VALD), a Non-Governmental Organisation on tobacco
control and other health issues has commended the Food and Drugs Authority
(FDA) for its swift action to close down some shisha shops in Accra.
The commendation was made in a statement
issued by Mr Labram Musah, the Programmes Director for VALD and the National
Coordinator, Ghana NCD Alliance and copied to the Ghana News Agency.
It said as part of VALD’s surveillance and
monitoring of the implementation of the Tobacco Control Measures of the Public
Health Act (Act 851) and the Tobacco Control Regulations (LI 2247) brought to the
attention of the FDA some on-going violations of the laws specifically on
shisha.
The statement said the tobacco control laws
clearly stated that all tobacco products must have health warnings approved by
the FDA, yet many hotels and restaurants had shisha lounges/joints opened to
the public every day without the approved health warnings.
It said: “We are of the opinion that there are
deliberate attempts to promote shisha smoking among the youth contrary to what
the law says. The influx of shisha in the country is having damaging health
consequences of the Ghanaian youth who are the target of the industry.
“We all know that smoking is banned in all
public places in Ghana except in Designated Smoking Areas (DSAs) yet shisha is
found and smoked in many communities openly, posing serious health problems
especially to second hand smokers including children and pregnant women.”
The VALD expressed the hope that the FDA would
step up its surveillance work and visit all the shisha joints, bars,
restaurants, hotels, among others and confiscate all unregistered products.
The statement said, shisha, also referred to
as water-pipe, is a tobacco smoking device, which employed an indirect heat
source (such as lit charcoal) to slowly burn tobacco leaves while users drew
smoke down through a water chamber into their mouths through hoses.
It said contrary to the “misconception” that
shisha was not as harmful as cigarette, the British Heart Foundation said an
hour-long shisha session could be the equivalent of smoking more than 100
cigarettes in one session.
“Apart from the known diseases such as the
heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease and problems during pregnancy,
smokers are at a high risk of infectious diseases such as; tuberculosis,
hepatitis, among others, and the World Health Organisation (WHO), in a recent
advisory note to regulators, revealed that smoking shisha posed grave health
risks.
The VALD believed that most of the
shisha/water-pipe tobacco products imported into Ghana were illegal and that
all tobacco products must be registered with the FDA before they were allowed
entry into the country.
“Our source indicates that they are coming
from neighbouring countries through unapproved routes. Some of the products
have no country of origin and no one knows the actual constituents of these
products being excessively used by the youth and some celebrities,” the
statement said.
It urged the FDA to remain resolute and
enforce the laws that sought to protect the present and future generations from
the devastating effects of tobacco use and tobacco smoke, adding that there was
enough bases to ban shisha in Ghana because it had no known benefits but a
destruction to mankind and a rise in non-communicable diseases which was
already a burden on the nation.
“Others such as; Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda have
all banned shisha so can we,” the statement said.
GNA