By Annet Nantongo
On Wednesday this week, the URA enforcement team in Arua foiled contraband tobacco smugglers. The operation netted a FUSO box-body truck, registration number UAU 426L, that had nine occupants (loaders and the driver) with 17.5 tons of Shisha and no accompanying documents.
In the operation, the enforcement team, swiftly rounded up the car occupants with their goods and escorted them to the URA offices to avoid any violent incidents from erupting within the community. The shisha was bundled up in 313 bags of 56kgs each.
Arua and the West Nile region has previously encountered violent anti-smuggling operations with some lives lost in the process. To this end, URA officials and the West Nile leadership and business communities have resolved to conduct peaceful operations and engage traders to avoid violence from all parties concerned.
Ibrahim Bbossa, the URA spokesperson commended the enforcement team for timely response to protect the health of Ugandans. He emphasized that this move is in line with Customs’ role in protecting society from undesirable and harmful products and promoting fair trade practices.
Meanwhile, research conducted by Ministry of Health and Makerere University’s School of Public Health in 2019 on prevalence, knowledge and practices of Shisha smoking in Kampala Uganda, noted that the prevalence of shisha smoking is high with three in ten youths smoking shisha yet their knowledge about the health effects associated with shisha smoking was low.
Most shisha smoking was practiced in bars in the company of friends sharing shisha pipes mainly on a weekly basis. Sharing of shisha pipes not only expose shisha smokers to infectious agents which cause the spread of communicable diseases but also increases the risk of getting diseases like tuberculosis, flu and herpes.
Globally tobacco use kills more than seven million people annually with more than six million of those deaths resulting from direct tobacco use while 890,000 result from exposure to second-hand smoke. Shisha smoking also known as hookah, water pipe, goza, nargile and hubble-bubble is a method of tobacco use which involves passing of smoke through water before inhalation.
Media reports from the Ministry of Health is also considering creating a law that bans Shisha smoking. The Tobacco Control Act of 2015 prohibits smoking in public places, advertising, promotion, and sponsorship of tobacco products, including shisha tobacco.
