Tobacco Control

The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday voted unanimously to ratify the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.The Convention dates from 2003, and Mozambique signed it in that year. But of the African signatories to the convention, all, except Mozambique and Ethiopia, have ratified it by now. Of all the 15 member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), only Malawi has not signed the convention.To date, 179 countries have ratified the convention, including major tobacco producers such as Zimbabwe and Brazil.Introducing the ratification proposal, Health Minister Nazira Abdula said “tobacco is the only legal product which kills half the people who use it”.She said that, despite its delay in ratifying the convention, Mozambique had taken a series of measures intended to reduce smoking – these include a ban on smoking in all public places, and a ban on tobacco advertising. The current estimate if that 16.7 per cent of adult Mozambicans smoke.In recent years tobacco has become a significant cash crop in Mozambique. Despite this, the cigarette industry in Mozambique, Abdula said, is not opposed to ratifying the convention. She added this did not mean that the government was in discussions with the cigarette industry or had any connection with it.One aspect covered by the convention is the provision of alternative activities work people dependent on the tobacco industry. Abdula said this would mean alternative crops, offering the same level of income to farmers as tobacco.The Convention urges all its signatories to take measures to reduce tobacco consumption, including pricing and taxation measures, advertising bans, and health warnings on cigarette packets.The ratification proposal was entirely uncontroversial, and was thus passed unanimously and by acclamation.