Confronting the tobacco industry to protect public health

KATHMANDU: A policy intervention, designed in the right way, can go a long way to pursue what is supposed to be the ultimate goal of politics: make peoples’ lives better.

Many of these actions, whatever their shape and nature, policies, regulations or legislations, do require considerable financial resources on top of political will to bring them forward.

At the same time, others need only the latter.

One example of policy interventions in this group is related to one of the most complex issues in the realm of public health.

It is a problem that is very visible and almost inescapable because it is practically everywhere.

You do not only see it but, even worse, there is high probability that you end up inhaling it.

It is not hard to guess what I am talking about.

Smoking is a major public health issue in Nepal but unfortunately is one of the most neglected.

To me the most concerning aspect is that young people have totally embraced it.

Over the last fifteen years, there has been an incredible uptick of smoking among youths.

I wish I could know the marketing and branding tricks deployed by the tobacco industry in the country but it is impossible to deny that they have been brilliant.

A casebook on how to induce young people to smoke could be written and it could become a sensational story even if, unfortunately, not for any good reasons.

The easiest way to understand how this playbook worked is to step in any local eatery and realize how well spread smoking has become.

Restaurants and cafés, with the exceptions of those who are at the very high end of the spectrum, are complicit and abetting the spread of smoking.

The reason is simple: a cigarette, sold in a loose way, has become a very normalized practice and it is an additional service that diners offer to their patrons.

I must confess that I am not aware of the charge for one loose cigarette but it must be a good business for the hospitality industry.

The only problem is that it is an illegal practice.

Over the last 10 years there have been several attempts to ban smoking in public spaces, a category that also includes restaurants and cafes.

Interestingly local governments have been trying to take the lead in this uphill battle.

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has been at the front of this quest to implement what is simply a common sense policy.

Let’s not forget that federalism provides local governments with important legal tools to advance public health.

This layer of government, the closest to the citizenry, are, in plain terms, potentially a bulwark in tackling public health emergencies and let’s be honest, the use of tobacco among youths is just what it is, a public health calamity.

The government of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City has a powerful tool at disposal and it has tried to use it.