Sierra Leone has passed a new law that disallows smoking in public places among other things, reports The Sierra Leone Telegraph.

As an effort to push down tobacco consumption in the country, the parliament of Sierra Leone has passed a new law titled “The Tobacco and Nicotine Act, 2022” which bans smoking public places. The new law also deals with the control and regulation of the production, manufacturing, importation, packaging and labelling, advertising, promotion and sponsorship, sale and use of tobacco, tobacco products, and other nicotine products, reports The Sierra Leone Telegraph. Furthermore, the law aims to improve public health my limiting the harms caused by the use and exposure to tobacco products by reducing the demand.
According to The Sierra Leone Telegraph, the law also makes provision for the incorporation of Sierra Leone’s obligations under the World Health Organization Framework Convention in Tobacco Control into domestic Law, and for the government to set up a Tobacco and Nicotine Control Secretariat which will be responsible for the implementation of the new law Act.
A 2020 report by the Oxford Policy Fellowship draws attention to tobacco as one of the world’s leading health threats and states that tobacco use kills around 3,300 Sierra Leoneans each year. The use of tobacco costs the country’s economy around USD 41 million per year – 1.5 per cent of the GDP.
“The new legislation seeks to raise a generation of Sierra Leoneans that do not use tobacco, realising citizens’ wishes – revealed by the consultations – to completely eradicate tobacco consumption throughout the country. It also seeks to protect the rights of non-smokers from exposure to tobacco smoke in indoor places, public transport and outdoor public places. This will dramatically reduce the incidence of non-communicable diseases and do a lot to cut Sierra Leone’s high mortality rates,” the report states.