The Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa ( CTCA) has hailed Council of Ministers in Mauritania for adopting the Tobacco control Bill 2012. The decision follows a validation process by tobacco control stakeholders in the country which reviewed the draft Bill in June 2012, and made some amendments and recommendations.
The bill has eleven chapters and 62 articles that provide for, among other things, an increase in tobacco taxes and the establishment of a National coordinating mechanism under the stewardship of the Health Ministry. The other provisions of the Bill include;
•Protection of public health policies with respect to tobacco control from the interests of the tobacco industry;
•Protection from exposure to tobacco smoke;
•Regulation of the contents of tobacco products and of tobacco product disclosures;
•Packaging and labeling of tobacco products;
•Education, communication, training and public awareness;
•Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
•Measures concerning tobacco dependence and cessation;
•Illicit trade in tobacco products;
•Sales to and by minors;
•Support for economically viable alternative activities;
•Protection of the environment.
The Bill is now expected to be presented to Parliament for debate and adoption.
In May 2012, the government of Mauritania asked CTCA and WHO to support the development of a comprehensive tobacco control law to guide the implementation of tobacco control measures in the country. This was during the capacity assessment mission that was jointly carried out by the Government of Mauritania, WHO and CTCA. Accordingly, WHO and CTCA provided technical assistance to facilitate the establishment of the National coordination mechanism. This process culminated into a national stakeholders workshop that reviewed and validated the draft tobacco control bill in June 2012. It is this draft bill that has now been adopted by the Council of Ministers.
Mauritania is a signatory to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), and ratified the Treaty in 2005. Since then, the Government of Mauritania has put in place some measures to control the consumption of tobacco products in order to address its consequences, specifically tobacco-related diseases. In 2005, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs introduced a decree banning smoking in private and public health institutions. In 2007, a regulation was issued banning smoking in public and private education facilities.
However despite the regulations, implementation of the smoke free environments has been sub optimal mainly due to the absence of a comprehensive tobacco control law, which has evidently undermined the tobacco control efforts.