Philipsburg --- "It is time we ban smoking in all public areas and let it be properly enforced by the relevant authorities," remarked Stuart Johnson President of the Youth Link Foundation. The legislation that was taken over from the former Netherlands Antilles with respect to smoking needs to serve as the premise for more detailed legislation.
Johnson and his team are calling on the Honorable Minister of Health Mr. C. De Weever to fully recognize and address this issue in its totality. The ban should cover smoking in public buses, taxis, work places, public buildings, night clubs, restaurants, bars, casinos, and all enclosed public-access buildings, granting no exceptions.
Johnson said, the Minister's "Get checked campaign", call on businesses/restaurants to have smoke free public spaces and a CPS starts Stakeholders Meeting about Tobacco Cessation Initiative was a step in the right direction. "Now is the time to take it a step further for the benefit of everyone. Parliament must draft and approve a law which addresses the complete ban of smoking in all public enclosed areas with an effective enforcement plan."
"The severe negative effects of smoking and that of second hand smoke are supported by several medical/scientific studies," Johnson said. Smoking causes increase health risk such as coronary heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, cancer of the oral cavity and cancer of the larynx, just to mention some.
According to the third periodic country-level WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2011 "Warning about the dangers of tobacco," tobacco continues to kill nearly six million people each year, including more than 600,000 non-smokers who die from exposure to tobacco smoke. Up to half of the world's one billion smokers will eventually die of a tobacco-related disease.
"This isn't about politics, this is about people's health, and the need to educate our people of the health risks needs to be priority now," Johnson added. Joining the call for a ban on smoking is the Laugh Out Loud Production and Awo crew.
The members of the Youth Link Foundation will be reaching out to the community for further support in the coming weeks. Countries which have already smoking bans includes, Argentina, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Iceland, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom, just to mention a few.