Dereje Amsalu can now breathe more easily. The management of the Blendana Hotel, which is located in the Benishangul region of northwest Ethiopia, is pleased with the hotel’s new smoke-free status.
“Previously, hotel employees were uneasy about clients smoking tobacco within,” he explains. “The hotel is now smoke-free; we do not allow anyone to smoke, whether local or foreign.”
The Ethiopian Ministry of Health recently listed Benishangul as one of five locations with significant tobacco use, traditional tobacco smoking, access to illegal tobacco products, khat chewing, and alcohol consumption. These were some of the criteria utilized in a new World Health Organization-backed tobacco control support project.
Afar, Gambella, Oromia, and Somalia, in addition to Benishangul, have been targeted for tobacco legislation, which includes the designation and enforcement of smoke-free settings to safeguard the people from the dangers of secondhand smoking.
“Second-hand smoke exposure is a matter of public health,” says Heran Gerba, head of Ethiopia’s Federal Food and Drugs Authority. “Our most recent data shows that nearly one-third of adults – that’s 6.5 million people – working indoors are exposed to tobacco smoke in the workplace, and a further 8.4 million are exposed at home. Enforcing smoke-free environments is one of the major steps we are taking to protect health and promote safer environments.”
The effort has trained over 300 law enforcement officers, including police officers, at the regional level, based on lessons acquired from an earlier pilot program in Addis Ababa, Amhara, and Oromia. Education about the dangers of cigarette smoke, involvement of health workers, the media, and civil society in promoting and advocating smoke-free settings, as well as surprise inspections and fines, are all examples of enforcement.
Additionally, the government has used regional radio and television programs in numerous local languages to raise extensive public awareness about tobacco use, the significance of protecting individuals from second-hand smoke exposure, and the promotion of quitting. In the selected regions, over 17 000 ‘No Smoking’ stickers have been given to public places.
So far, the results have been favorable.
78 percent of public establishments, like as hotels, bars, and restaurants, as well as government workplaces, in Dire Dawa City Administration, at the border of the Oromia and Somali regions, were recently found to be in full compliance. Dire Dawa’s smoking prevalence, at 4.4 percent, is much higher than the national rate of 3.7 percent.
According to the 2016 Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 3.2 million Ethiopians, or around 5% of the population, use tobacco products. Tobacco use is roughly eight times higher in men than it is in women.
The advantages of compliance, according to Tano Maure, manager of the Case Asosa Hotel in Benishangul, go beyond physical well-being.
“The declaration of smoke-free environments is very good,” he says, noting that smoking in hotels is now illegal in his area. “Cigarette smoking causes many health, social and psychological problems for the individual and the country.
“This will help us become a more productive and nonaddictive society,” he points out.Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Health Organization (WHO) – Ethiopia.Media files