The Director of Public Health of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Joseph Amankwa, has called for the early passage of legislation on tobacco to help combat the menace of the drug.  He said the effects of tobacco had gone beyond a health issue to become a major developmental problem that needed to be addressed  Dr. Amankwa made the call at a workshop on the implementation of the Framework Convention on tobacco Control, which was organized by the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) in Accra. 

About five million people world-wide die from tobacco-related diseases every year and by the turn of this century, one billion people would have died under such conditions.  Developing countries account for 70% of the deaths.  Ghana was the 39th country out of 160 countries in the world to ratify the FCTC, but unfortunately, it is yet to enact a legislation on tobacco as required by the convention.  The absence of a legislation nonetheless, Dr, Amankwa stressed the need for intensive mass education, the prohibition of sale of tobacco to and by children, and appropriate warning notices by manufacturing companies on their product, as some of the intervention measures needed to fight tobacco. 

The acting Chief Psychiatrist, Dr. Kwasi Osei, said tobacco contained more than four thousand chemicals, many of which caused cancer.  He said tobacco could also kill the sperm of men and reduce the ability of women to have children, apart from affecting babies in the womb.  In a speech the Commission of CEPS, Emmanuel Doku, underlined the commitment of CEPS to check the smuggling of tobacco products into the country.