Bill bans smoking at public places

KATHMANDU, April 12: Gone are the days when you could freely smoke or chew tobacco in public places. A new bill on tobacco products endorsed by the legislature-parliament on Monday severely restricts tobacco consumption in public places.

The new law to be enacted shortly was endorsed as part of Nepal´s obligation to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and bans tobacco consumption in schools, colleges, hospitals, government offices, temples and public vehicles.


"Nepal is a party to the WHO convention. So we had the obligation to translate certain WHO provisions into national law," said Secretary at the Ministry of Law and Justice Madhav Poudel.

In an attempt to discourage smoking among youngsters, the law terms the selling of tobacco products to minors an offence.

The law also bans the sale of cigarettes in separate sticks to make the cigarette purchase a bit difficult.

"Now the people will have to buy cigarettes only in packets. It will certainly reduce tobacco sales," said UML chief whip Bhim Acharya adding that people would certainly have difficulties in the beginning, but they must get used to the new regulations.

The new law also stipulates that the tobacco companies fill 75 percent space of the packaging of the tobacco products with the facts about health hazards from tobacco consumption, and totally bans advertisements promoting tobacco use in any form.

"The best part of the new law is that it attempts to minimize the health risks non-smokers undergo because of smoking by others in public places," Acharya said.

According to WHO estimates, more than 10 million people will die due to the consumption of tobacco-products by the year 2030 and therefore, necessity for formulation of law against it across the world has been felt.

"The parliament has endorsed the bill. Now it is up to the government to enforce the law. We hope the new law will be helpful in reducing the harms to the people caused by tobacco use," said Nepali Congress (NC) chief whip, Laxman Ghimire.

Activists had long been demanding an effective law against the use of tobacco products in public places. In Nepal, prevalence of smoking and tobacco use is 56.5 percent in men and 19.5 percent in women, which is higher in comparison to other countries. Tobacco use here is found to be higher among the poor and illiterate sections of the population.