The weakness of 2006 smoking and tobacco consumption law of Myanmar

“According to a new survey, the number of smokers who are above 15 years old has increased since the government adopted the smoking and tobacco consumption law of Myanmar in 2006,” said specialist Dr.Daw Tint Tint Kyi from Insein general hospital in the forum to mark the world no tobacco day.

a hospital in Rakhine state also known as Arakan

“According to a survey in 2009, 40 percent of Men and 29 percent of women in Myanmar suffer from hypertension,” said rector Dr. Thint Swe from University of medicine 2.” Hypertension is related to smoking,” said medical scientists. Thus, probably,  the number of smokers in Myanmar will be 69 percent. There are a great numbers of secondhand smokers in Myanmar even though they do not smoke themselves. And, there are a great numbers of people who suffer from smoking related diseases due to the secondhand smoke.

In the international smoking control laws, smoking in coffee shops and restaurants is prohibited to limit the smoking areas. But in Myanmar, smoke free law allows smoking in coffee shops and restaurants unless they are air-conditioned rooms. It is necessary to  limit those areas if the government wants to prevent the smoking related diseases due to the secondhand smoke. The world bank is going to loan 2 billions USD to Myanmar for the projects on health, Education and electricity. Unless smoking is controlled, Myanmar people will not be healthy even though the government gets 2 billion USD from the world bank. It will look like picking up the frogs through the buckets with holes. Therefore, it is essential to amend the 2006 smoking control law which has weakness .

 

a model tea shop named Lat Rway Sin in Yangon
sources-New light of Myanmar