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Health News for Thursday, November 19, 2020
Source: GNA
2020-11-19
The lower the score, the better or less industry interference
The Vision for Alternative Development (VALD) has expressed concern about the tobacco industry’s continued interference in public health policies in Ghana and urged the government to improve transparency in its engagement with the industry.
In a recent report ranking the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index, Ghana scored 58, while Uganda, Peru and the United Kingdom scored 30 to 39; which means that the level of industry interference in Ghana was higher than that of the countries below 39.
“The lower the score, the better or lower the industry interference and, globally, tobacco industry interference has been widely shown to be a major affront to government attempts to implement Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention. of the World Health Organization for Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) ”, said the VALD.
Said Ghana Tobacco Industry Regulations; LI 2247 under industry interference stipulates that any interaction between the tobacco industry and the regulator must be strictly limited to tobacco control and enforcement.
A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency by Labram Musah, VALD’s Director of Programs, called on the government to disclose any records of lobbyists in the country acting in the interest of the tobacco industry, while developing mandatory policies so that the industry publicly inform or declare its corporate social responsibility to the country.
“The government must make full disclosure in the media or on the website of all activities, including income and profits, tax exemptions or any privileges received by the tobacco industry; while developing a code of conduct to guide government agencies and officials in tobacco industry involvement, ”he said.
The statement said that the index ranking report revealed that; “Since the passage of the Tobacco Control Act in 2012, Ghana has not developed a code of conduct for public officials in dealing with the tobacco industry in accordance with Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC and that gaps in Policies and legislation have the potential to promote tobacco industry interference. “
He urged the government to develop programs to regularly train or educate officials and agencies on Article 5.3 of the FCTC, adding that this would equip them with the necessary knowledge to avoid falling prey to the tobacco industry or inadvertently facilitating the industry’s activities to undermine tobacco control policies in the country.
It called on the Ministry of Finance to periodically review the price of tobacco products, tax regimes, and take appropriate measures to effectively regulate affordability and access to tobacco products.
He said that for six years (2015-2020) now, the government had made no policy attempts to increase taxes on tobacco products, a situation that serves as an incentive to promote the tobacco industry’s business.
“These are indications that government policies support or benefit the commercial activities of the tobacco industry in the country, for example; A statement made by the government to ban the use of shisha in 2018 has yet to go into effect.
“The Ghana Health Service called for the ban on the use of tobacco products in Ghanaian films not to go into effect yet; while (diplomatic) travelers are allowed large quantities of tobacco products duty free in the country, ”the statement said.
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