The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has decided to impose a complete ban on the sale of tobacco products in its jurisdiction from December 13 onwards.

The decision was made as directed by Mayor Balendra Shah. It is also in line with Clause 42 of the Public Health Act enforced this year, said Ram Prasad Poudel, chief of the municipal health department.

“Implementation of this decision helps improve public health, control pollution and beautify the city,” Poudel said.

The decision, however, is not unprecedented, as it is the fifth such announcement in the past seven years. Given the local unit’s failure to carry through its announcements in the past, there is scepticism if the latest decision would not meet the same fate.

Tobacco use is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCD) including cancers, cardiovascular diseases, chronic lung diseases and diabetes. It is the world’s leading cause of preventable deaths and kills nearly eight million people every year. It claims 1.6 million lives in the WHO South-East Asia Region, which is among the largest producers and consumers of tobacco products.

Poudel said that in the first phase, the metropolis would enforce a complete ban on the sale and distribution of tobacco products packaged in plastic bags—substances such as khaini, gutkha, pan parag and tobacco products of similar nature.

“The ban will be implemented strictly,” Poudel said. “City police will be deployed to enforce the decision. If anyone is found selling or distributing the prohibited products within the KMC, they will be confiscated and action taken against the guilty as per the law.”

The metropolis has also prohibited smoking in public places.

But this, too, is a tried, tested and failed measure. The metropolis had decided to enforce a ban on smoking in public places several times in the past, including last year, in 2019, 2018 and 2016.

As many as 28 percent of men and five percent of women in Nepal smoke tobacco, according to the final report of the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey-2022, a nationwide study carried out by the Ministry of Health and Population between January 5 and June 22 last year.

The study shows 17 percent of men smoke on a daily basis, while 11 percent occasionally do. Among men who smoke cigarettes, a majority (54 percent) smoke less than five cigarettes per day on average. More men use smokeless tobacco than women—35 percent versus three percent. Overall, half of the men (50 percent) and only seven percent of women in Nepal use any type of tobacco.

There has been a decline in the proportion of women who smoke any type of tobacco since 2001—from 25 percent to 5 percent. Similarly, the proportion of women who smoke cigarettes declined from 23 percent in 2001 to four percent in 2022. Among men, the proportion who smoke any type of tobacco dropped from 45 percent in 2001 to 28 percent in 2022.

The proportion of women who smoke any type of tobacco increases with age, from one percent among those in the age group of 15–19 to 13 percent in the age of 45–49.

Women and men with more than secondary education (three percent and 25 percent, respectively) are less likely to use any type of tobacco compared to those with no education (16 percent and 73 percent, respectively).

The use of tobacco is also the leading cause of cancer and death from it. According to the World Health Organization, tobacco kills 27,137 people in Nepal every year.