Those days when all could freely smoke or chew tobacco products in public places have gone. A new bill on smoking products approved by Nepali parliament toughly restricts smoking in all public places. The given law will be adopted as a part of Nepal’s commitment to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and prohibits smoking in schools, universities, hospitals, government offices and public vehicles. Nepal has signed WHO convention. So we must translate particular WHO provisions into national law, stated Secretary at the Ministry of Law and Justice Madhav Poudel. Nepal signed the WHO FCTC on 3 December 2003 and ratified the given framework on 7 November 2006.

In order to discourage smoking among teenagers, the law prohibits selling of tobacco products to minors. All infringements according to the law terms will be considered an offense. The law also prohibits the sale of cigarettes in separate sticks in order to make the cigarette purchase more complicated. One more thing that the law stipulates is that all tobacco enterprises cover 75% space of the package of cigarettes adding information about health hazards from tobacco use, and completely bans advertisement of any kind. On Tuesday the parliament unanimously adopted the Tobacco Product Control and Regulatory Bill, 2010. It will take effect 90 days after the President approved it.

“From now on all people will have to purchase cigarettes only in packages. Without doubt it will decrease tobacco sales,” stated UML chief Bhim Acharya underlying that people would certainly have difficulties in the beginning, but they should get used with the new regulations.

“The most important and best part of the new law is that it is directed on minimizing the health risks non-smokers should undergo because of smoking by other in public places and venues,” Acharya added.

“The parliament has already approved the bill. Now it is up to the government to enforce the given law and assure its implementation. We hope that the new law will be helpful in reducing the dangers to the people caused by smoking,” stated Nepali Congress (NC) chief, Laxman Ghimire.

Activists had long been requiring an effective law against the tobacco consumption in public places. In Nepal for instance, the prevalence of smoking and tobacco use constitutes 56.5 % among men and 19.5 % among women, which is higher in comparison to other countries. Smoking here is demonstrated to be higher among the poor and illiterate sections of the population.