The preparation of the implementation of the Law on the control and limited use of tobacco in the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is underway. The Federal Administration for Inspection Affairs announces that the inspectors will monitor the regulations that will soon come into force. The Ministry of Health says that this is the first step in protection from tobacco smoke and harmonization with EU legal acquis.
The implementation of the Law on the control and limited use of tobacco, tobacco and other smoking products, which is being prepared, is quite adapted to EU directives, according to the Federal Institute for Public Health and the Federal Ministry of Health. The inspectors announce that they will follow the rules that will soon come into force.
“So we will be doing mostly clinical centers. Considering that we also work in facilities for convicts, we will also work, I speak for the health inspectors, from Zenica Penitentiary to Busovača and Tuzla. We will work with institutions that deal with biomedical assisted fertilization and we will work with others that are provided to us by the parties and that relate to our type of supervision,” says Adi Gujic, Federal Administration for Inspection Affairs.
“In the draft of that rulebook, it was stated that up to 50 square meters catering establishments can choose whether they are smoking or not. It will have to have adequate ventilation that will protect others as much as possible. By complying with the regulations of the law, the authorities say, health is respected, says Vedran Marcinko, Assistant Minister of Health FBiH for Legal Affairs and EU Integration.
“We believe that the implementation of this Law, from the aspect of public health, brings us closer to the opportunities that other countries that have done this have had before. I would like to remind you that the framework convention on tobacco control entered into force in 2005. in force. In 2009, we as Bosnia and Herzegovina made a decision on ratification with some delay,” explained Aida Ramic Catak from the Ministry of Health FBiH.
“I hereby appeal to the Minister of Health and Social Protection of the RS to enact a similar or even better law in another entity, because those who live in that territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina also send appeals. More than 80 percent of catering establishments were visited and it was shown that 70 percent of them have harmonized their operations with this law,” explained Jasmina Cekric, executive director of PROI.
Citizens are divided. Some support it, others think it’s funny.
