The long awaited Tobacco Control Bill is expected to be tabled at the next sitting of the National Assembly,Jerseys From China, Public Health Minister George Norton said yesterday.After many delays, the Bill is finally being tabled, Norton stated. He added that a Cabinet sub-committee had reviewed and approved it. He indicated that the final approval was granted a week ago at a Cabinet sitting. The sub-committee functions to examine all Bills before submission to the National Assembly.Cabinet had given approval for the Tobacco Control Bill to be submitted to the Parliament last year but the Bill was still under scrutiny by the committee.However, even as Government moves to ban smoking in public places, one of the main stakeholders in the tobacco trade— Demerara Tobacco Ltd— has alleged that it was excluded from the consultation process for the drafting of the new legislation.Managing Director, Maurlain Argyle-Kirton, said, yesterday,Cheap Jerseys Wholesale, that it was disturbing that the Company was not included in the consultations. “Unfortunately and disturbingly,Cheap NFL Jerseys, Demerara Tobacco has not been consulted despite many consultations on the Bill over the years,” she stated.The Company has not yet laid eyes on the contents of the Bill, said Argyle-Kirton.She asserted that despite many attempts to have engagement with the Public Health Ministry, no one sought to question why a piece? of legislation that is so important to Guyana’s economy and public health, should be managed so “confidentially.”Dr Norton stated that he had invited the company to meet with the ministry to discuss the contents of the Bill. This Bill, he said, will provide for the implementation of tobacco control policies in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco control.It is also intended to protect present and future generations from the “devastating harms” of tobacco use,Wholesale Jerseys From China, exposure to tobacco smoke, and specifically to prevent tobacco use among youths. Currently, more than one in five students use a form of tobacco, with 9.5 % of students smoking cigarettes and 14.8 % using some other form of tobacco.This was revealed in the Guyana Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) for 2010. It stated that 11.4 % of Guyanese youths, who were non-smokers, were likely to initiate smoking by the next year.The legislation would also seek to ensure that the public is protected from the commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry, while preventing the illicit trade in tobacco products.Each year,Cheap Stitched Jerseys, tobacco kills 6 million people: 5.4 million active smokers and 600,000 non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke. It is the single legal consumer product that kills up to half of its users when used exactly as intended by the manufacturer, costing the global economy an estimated US$200 billion each year.A PAHO/WHO report indicated 71% of men consume tobacco while only 3.6% women are users in Guyana. This is a typical profile of tobacco consumption since men usually consume more than women at the beginning.The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Regional Advisor on Tobacco Control Dr Adrianna Blanco had stated that,Cheap Jerseys Online, “this is something that if you don’t take care of it, it will get worst”.A section of the legislation includes increasing taxes on tobacco products. The Charity Cancer Research UK researchers had indicated that tripling tobacco tax globally would cut smoking by a third. The researchers stated that increasing taxes by a large amount per cigarette would motivate people to quit smoking altogether rather than switch to a cheaper brand.At present, cigarettes are so easily accessible they are sold singly—the price going as low as $40.