Minister of Health of FBiH Vjekoslav Mandić, Director of the Institute for Public Health of FbiH Davor Pehar, federal coordinator for the fight against smoking Aida Ramić, representative of non-governmental sector Uliana Bakh and director for cooperation in the Embassy of Switzerland in BiH Barbara Dätwyler Scheue presented yesterday the Draft law on control and limited use of tobacco, tobacco products, and other smoking products.
The Draft law foresees the ban of smoking in all closed public places, at all workplaces, in public transportation, in private cars if a person under the age 18 is present there, and at public gatherings. Smoking would be allowed in private premises and open spaces.
Moreover, the Draft law foresees the ban of selling tobacco products to persons under the age of 18, ban of displaying tobacco products on visible places, ban of selling tobacco products at the distance of under 100 meters from educational institutions, and ban of selling tobacco products that contain flavors, smells, vitamins, caffeine, taurine, colors and other additives.
“The Draft law has been forwarded to all cantons and it will be forwarded to the parliamentary procedure soon. The public should know that this is only the beginning and that complete ban of smoking is a long term process that is still ahead of us,” Mandić said.
According to the latest information from the World Health Organization, BiH is on the tenth place according to the number of people who consume cigarettes and BiH citizens spend nearly four million BAM every day on cigarettes.
The Draft law also foresees monetary penalties for violations of the law, ranging from 100 BAM to 15.000 BAM.
(Source: faktor.ba)
