THE Anti Tobacco Network (ATN) was formally registered last week as a society. It aims to create an enabling environment in which tobacco control activists and other stakeholders can work together to make a lasting impact to control and reduce tobacco use in Botswana.
The main objective of the non-profit organisation is to develop strategies and activities that will reduce tobacco consumption and to protect the public from tobacco smoke and its related consequences.
“Even though Botswana passed an anti-smoking law in 1992, the law has largely remained un-enforced and defaulters are not punished. Although tobacco control initiatives have been ongoing in Botswana for many years their impact has not been felt due to lack of co-ordination at national and local levels, as well as limited implementation structure,” Bontle Mbongwe, one of the leading members of the organisation explained.
She added that available information on tobacco use in Botswana and related problems is scant and insufficient to enable well-planned and viable tobacco control initiatives; “therefore there is need for a more coordinated effort through the involvement of all sectors of the nation,” she said. The need for the sustainable enforcement of the law cannot be over emphasized, she observed.
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