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Anti-smoking laws give poor results in Mauritius
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Anti-smoking laws give poor results in Mauritius
It is only today, Saturday 1st June 2013 that a new set of anti-smoking laws comes into effect in Russia where it is henceforth forbidden to smoke in buses, trains and public places. Putin’s Russia, a country of repression, is far behind time compared to Mauritius where since ages the majority of the population has adopted a culture of not smoking in buses and cinema halls. A considerable progress when one realizes that only two generations ago, cinemas and public buildings on the island were mere smoking galleries.
A series of legislations and regulations made by the Mauritian Ministry of Health, following World Health Organisation directives, have been enacted on the island to reinforce smoking ban. Made by different ministers, they concern the prevention of public smoking, unit sales of cigarettes or sale of tobacco products to juveniles etc.
But these series of legislations have yielded till now very poor results, according to local health professionals. Smoking has not regressed that much as more and more youngsters are taking to smoking at school levels. More and more girls are joining the band wagon.
Mauritius is not an exception in the world when it comes to the adequation of repressive anti-smoking laws and smoking reduction in the population.
The French cardiology society has often drawn the attention to the fact that anti-smoking laws have not reduced the rate of heart attack in France, as it have in Italy, Scotland and the United States where these attacks have been reduced between 11 to 17 % with the introduction of public smoking ban.
Why has the ban worked in some countries and not in others. Those who have studied the question say that French smokers who started to respect the ban are now getting around the law which the French authorities cannot enforce.
We are witnessing the same pattern in Mauritius. The cardiac centre’s toilets often smell tobacco, to such an extent that installation of smoke alarm in the loo is being completed.
Mauritians are not aware and have not been made aware that no ventilation system can clean rooms or toilets of the thousands of toxic substances deposited by cigarette’s smoke.
Alas, it is not only uneducated patients who are using hospital toilets for smoking these days. Nursing staff and doctors are doing the same thing.
A chest specialist says that the mere number of cigarette butts on doctors parking lot in hospitals tell a lot about the failure of anti-smoking legislation in Mauritius.
One doctor went to the extreme of smoking his cannabis filled cigarette in the yard of Candos hospital and only his arrest by the anti-drug unit put an end to his bad habits.
The country might get better results if Health minister, Lormus Bundhoo, could follow in the path of minister Anil Baichoo who is using intensively speed cameras and heavy fines to curb the culture of speeding on Mauritian roads.
With all these problems looming, one tend to forget that one of this year’s theme of’ World no tobacco’ day is to help those trying to get out of the grip of tobacco addiction.
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