Enforce new tobacco rules

Revellers enjoy music while smoking shisha during the event at the Carnivore Grounds, Nairobi. Tobacco firms will be required to display on cigarette packs health warnings on the effects of smoking. PHOTO | GERALD ANDERSON | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The biggest problem with tobacco is the addiction that makes smokers ignore the evident risk to their lives.
  • Some towns have made half-hearted attempts to control tobacco smoking through public bans and the creation of special smoking zones.
  • The best thing about the new rules is that they directly target smokers and cigarette manufacturers.

The tough new rules to curb smoking are essential, considering the grim statistics associated with the consumption of tobacco.

Every year in Kenya, some 6,000 people are killed by tobacco-caused diseases, causing a serious health crisis that calls for decisive action.

The biggest problem with tobacco is the addiction that makes smokers ignore the evident risk to their lives.

With hundreds of thousands of children and women also hooked to this deadly habit, one can clearly see how a pleasurable pastime for some is, indeed, a deadly health threat to all.

Resources that should go into treating other diseases are being expended on the care of people affected by tobacco, either directly or indirectly through second-hand smoke.

Some towns have made half-hearted attempts to control tobacco smoking through public bans and the creation of special smoking zones.

However, many smokers still light up in the open or in crowded places.

The best thing about the new rules is that they directly target smokers and cigarette manufacturers.

Health warnings with graphic messages on the effects of smoking are now more prominently displayed on cigarette packets.

The aim is to minimise the allure of smoking. These rules must be more strictly monitored and enforced.