Tobacco, betel nut and booze banned from Solomon Islands market
The Solomon Islands Ministry of Health says it is declaring the Honiara Central Market healthy as it moves to ban the sale and use of tobacco, betel nut and alcohol.
Transcript
The Solomon Islands Ministry of Health says it is declaring the Honiara Central Market healthy as it moves to ban the sale and use of tobacco, betel nut and alcohol.
The Ministry has been given US$20,000 from the World Health Organisation for its proposal to transform the marketplace.
The Director of Health Promotion, Alby Lovi, discussed the project with Jenny Meyer.
ALBY LOVI: The project seeks to create a new friendly market atmosphere, where everybody has a sense of belonging and ownership and a place that promotes ecological balance, of course dignity, promotes lesson learning. And since it is also part of the tobacco control law in the Solomon Islands that declares smoke free zones, inclusive of schools, hospitals, the workplace. And we have decided to have the Minister declare the healthy central market place as one of the no smoking zones, and inclusive of no betel nut chewing, no betel nut selling as well as no selling of home brews like kwaso and alcohol and consumption of alcohol as well.
JENNY MEYER: And how do you expect this will be received by the public who trade there regularly?
AL: When it comes to the no smoking, I think it's part of the law and we are trying to enforce that by involving the Honiara City Council law enforcers including the police and health inspectors. And there will be a mass campaign within the central market area to let people know that this initiate will be enforced in the marketplace.
JM: And I understand you've also got a drive towards selling more healthy produce, I imagine much of that is already quite healthy if it's grown produce from the rural areas coming in to market; will you be banning certain types of unhealthy food or is that not really on the agenda at this point?
AL: We'll be looking at people selling only health food. Excluding junk food that is currently sold in the lock up shops. And I think this needs a lot of awareness and enforcement. We will be doing village campaigns in the areas where market produce is coming from to ensure that products that are sold at the market are healthy. I think that the main reason is that currently I think Solomon Islands is also faced with high alarming rates of NCDs just like other Pacific Islands and we would like this central market project, should be a goal to other market places in Solomon Islands as well.
Alby Lovi, says he hopes other agencies will support the project.
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