The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has urged the police to enforce the ban on flavoured tobacco products including shisha in public places.
Shisha smoking is the intake of flavoured tobacco, often mixed with fruits or molasses sugar, through a bowl & a hose with a mouthpiece.
The hose connects the flavoured smoke from substances being burnt in the bowl to the lungs of the smoker through the shisha pipes.
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Adewole, made the declaration during a press conference in Abuja on Monday to mark the 2018 world No- Tobacco Day, tagged ‘Tobacco Breaks the Heart Choose Health, Not Tobacco’.
He further said most of the flavoured tobacco were targeted at the youths and were as dangerous as cigarettes.
“Let me stress that the ban on tobacco products with characterising flavours is still in place and the ban includes shisha because it has flavour. I, therefore, urge the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and the law enforcement agencies to intensify arrest of defaulters,” Adewole said.
Also speaking, the Director-General of the CPC, Mr. Babatunde Irukera, said a committee had been set up to look into the issue (Shisha ban).
“Recently, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria which is responsible for creating the national industrial standard convened a technical committee meeting with respect to the tobacco standard and the subject of shisha was discussed like any other tobacco product,” he said.
“And the new industry standards are undergoing the process now so it is not an illegal product now but soon the SON will come up with what the final standard will be.”