Accra, Jan. 31, GNA - Parents have been asked to desist from sending their children to purchase tobacco as well as lighting cigarette sticks before handing them over to them.

Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), noted that those acts were not only exposing children to the habit of smoking but affecting their health.

"We want parents to do the right thing. Don't encourage your children to buy cigarettes for you. They smoke them after lighting the sticks." Prof. Akosa said this when the 93OOPS Night Club" at First Light, near Kaneshie in Accra, declared its premises as a smoke-free area as part of the campaign against tobacco use in Ghana.

Research indicates that people, who smoked during their teens and continued for two or more decades die 20 years to 25 years earlier than those who never light up. Effects of tobacco include lung cancer, heart diseases and death.

He said the youth and the poor instead of adopting good nutritional habits were rather adopting smoking that was detrimental to their health.

"Statistics indicate that children at the early ages of 10 years have been smoking" which the Prof. Akosa said did not send good signal to the nations health status".

According to him there was no scientific evidence that tobacco was good for the health of persons.

The Director General commended the Proprietor of the Night Club for voluntarily offering his premises to be declared as a smoke-free area.

"This is the first of its kind in the country for someone to declare his premises a smoke-free area, indeed people would only do that when the law is in force," he said. Prof. Akosa who posted "no smoking" stickers on the wall and gates of the Nightclub, urged other nightclubs, drinking bars and restaurants operators to join in the fight against tobacco in the country.

He said Ireland, which was known to be one of the countries that sold billions of cigarettes and alcohol over the years, had been able to cut down on the sale and smoking of tobacco, and "they are doing well in their businesses".

"OOPS has blazed the trail, others need to follow. We don't need the law before we do the right thing," he Prof Akosa said. Mr Kofi Amoakohene, Proprietor of OPPS Night Club, who had smoked for the past 37 years, said he heard about the anti-smoking campaign and decided to offer his premises as his contribution to the campaign. Mr Amoakohene said though he was mindful of the monetary loss, he was also concerned about the health of the entire nation and pledged his continued support for the sustenance of the campaign against tobacco. 31 Jan. 07