The Ashanti Regional Office of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has stepped up public education on the dangers associated with tobacco use
The Authority has been engaging the public through radio and community information centres, highlighting the harmful effects of tobacco to both the smoker and persons exposed to the smoke.
It has also been engaging managers of food service establishments to assist the Authority in enforcing the ban on smoking in public places as enshrined in the Public Health Act and the Tobacco Control Regulations.
These form part of enforcement mechanisms being implemented by the FDA which include tobacco control monitoring, surveillance activities, night monitoring and regulatory sanctions.
Also being targeted in the sensitisation drive are senior high school students as part of efforts to protect young people from the health effects of tobacco.
The latest to be visited by officials of FDA in the Ashanti Region with key messages on the health risks of tobacco is the Armed Forces Senior High School in Kumasi.
The students were encouraged not only to stay away from the use of tobacco but also avoid environments polluted by smoke from burning cigarettes.
Mr. John Laryea Odai-Tettey, the Regional Head of FDA, said the use of tobacco and tobacco products could result in potential lethal illnesses including respiratory infections, asthma, heart diseases, stroke, as well as sudden infant death syndrome.
These, he reminded the students, were deadly diseases which could threaten their future as young people and stressed the need for them to abstain from anything tobacco.
They must justify the investments made in them by the government and their parents and not allow peer influence to rob them of a brighter future, Mr. Odai-Tettey advised the students.
He also implored them to be ambassadors of the message in their homes, churches and other social gatherings to save lives.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
