[Intl-tobacco] Bhutan seeks to ban smoking

[Robert Weissman]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2674039.stm

BBC News
Sunday, 19 January, 2003, 15:57 GMT
Bhutan seeks to ban smoking

Bhutan hopes to become the first smoke-free nation

By Daniel Lak
Thimpu, Bhutan

Armed with tradition and determination, Bhutan's
Government says it wants to stamp out smoking across
the country - possibly becoming the first nation on earth
to entirely ban tobacco use.

The tradition in the remote Himalayan kingdom dates
back to the 17th Century, some say even earlier.

In the 1640s, the founder of modern Bhutan, the
warrior monk Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, enacted the
first-ever ban on smoking in public when he outlawed
the use of tobacco in government buildings.

Those who tend to believe
that the prohibition on
tobacco is historic include
Bhutan's crusading health
minister, Sangay Ngedup.

"The great saint who
brought us Buddhism,
Padmasambhava or Guru
Rimpoche - he also said
smoking was bad and no
follower of Lord Buddha
should smoke," says Mr
Ngedup.

"He may have been
referring to opium, but we
feel very comfortable extending his concerns to
tobacco."

The minister tells visiting journalists and health officials
that it is not the government that is seeking to ban
tobacco.

Local resistance

Prohibitions on smoking and chewing come from local
communities, he says, and the government merely
does as it is asked.

Several hours drive from the Bhutanese capital,
Thimpu, over the soaring and beautiful pass, the Dochu
La, you enter the district of Wangdue.

Here, as in almost every rural area of Bhutan, the sale
of tobacco is totally banned.

Thimpu and its surrounds
have so far resisted the ban,
but there is plenty of support
in small towns like Wangdue,
according to the district
governor or dzongdag, Pem
L Dorji.

"The local business
community, teachers, ordinary people, they all came to
me and asked me to ban tobacco. I said, 'it's not up to
me, it's your decision'.

"They drew up a bylaw and now we fine people who sell
cigarettes. Usually we warn them first, but only once,"
he says.

One of Governor Dorji's main concerns is that a small
sliver of territory in Thimpu district is only a few
kilometres away from his town, and cigarettes are
legally available there.

Health concerns

At the roadside just across the district border, sure
enough fruit seller Chiran Subba is smoking.

But his views on the tobacco ban are surprising.

"I want them to ban these things," he says, waving the
cigarette in his hand, "then I could quit - it's a filthy
habit". His wife, sitting next to him, agrees and laughs
at his words.

Across the road, truck drivers bound for tobacco-free
districts - 18 of Bhutan's 20 districts have banned
tobacco sales - stop to buy cigarettes at smoking's last
redoubt.

There is no doubt that the founder
of Bhutan, Shabdrung Namgyal,
might be shocked at the sight of
Jaycee's pool hall in Thimpu.

Tobacco smoke hangs
thickly over the green
baize of the snooker
tables, cigarettes droop
from the corners of the
player's mouths.

A man who didn't want to
give his name told me
what he thought of the
tobacco ban.

"It's my health," he said,
squinting through the
smoke, "if I want to ruin it,
it's my business."

He muttered something about Bhutan's government
being too autocratic on some issues and went back to
his game.

Doctors' warnings

At the sharp end of the drive against smoking, the
Director of Health for Bhutan, Dr Gado Tshering.

As a rural physician, and now as a health official, he is
alarmed by the number of young Bhutanese who he
says are starting to smoke.

Bhutan produces no
tobacco products of its
own, so everything that
people smoke or chew
there is imported.

"Aside from personal
health," says Dr Gado, "it
all comes down to resources.

Should Bhutanese families be spending
household money on tobacco? And should our
small country, where health care is free for all,
have to subsidise people's bad habits?"

The doctor leaves no doubt of his answer to
those questions, and pledges to make his
country the first smoke-free nation on earth, as
soon as possible.