Nepal plans to ban smoking in public places

Kathmandu, June 14: Nepal plans to ban smoking in public places and tobacco advertisements in newspapers, a government official said today, a day after the Supreme Court ordered authorities to outlaw the two.

Officials said the ban would apply to government offices, hospitals, schools and public transport, among others.

''We will prepare a tobacco control act that will ban smoking in public places,'' Rishi Raj Bhandari, a Health Ministry official, told Reuters. He didn't say when thegovernment planned to make the new law.

The Supreme Court, in response to a petition to ban smoking in public places on health grounds, also ordered the government to ban advertisements of tobacco products in newspapers and magazines.

Tobacco advertisments are already banned on radio and television in Nepal, where about 15,000 people die annually from tobacco related diseases.

The cigarette industry contributes 55 million dollars in annual revenue to the government and employs about 50,000 people.

Reuters