The National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) has launched a strategic plan to reduce the country’s smoking rate, currently at 10%, ahead of the implementation of the proposed Tobacco-Free Generation (TFG) programme, while acknowledging the practical difficulties of eliminating tobacco use completely.

Speaking to The Daily Morning, NATA Chairman Dr Ananda Rathnayaka said reducing tobacco use among existing smokers was essential for the TFG programme to succeed.

“10 percent of our country’s population are smokers. We are on a strategic plan to reduce this as much as possible,” he said.

He acknowledged that completely eradicating tobacco by the planned target year would be difficult due to the continued availability of tobacco products in society.

Although the programme has been launched, he said achieving 100% eradication would not be possible through the TFG programme alone.

“The Tobacco-Free Generation programme cannot do this alone. The strategies are in progress to reduce the population of smokers,” he said.

“Although there are plans to eradicate tobacco totally by a particular year, that won’t be possible actually. But after a couple of generations, we will be able to eradicate it totally,” he said.

A Tobacco-Free Generation public health policy aims to permanently ban the legal sale of tobacco products to anyone born after a specific cut-off date. NATA, with the support of the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC), has been pushing for the implementation of the policy in Sri Lanka.

However, the TFG programme remains a Cabinet paper.

Rathnayaka urged media personnel to reiterate the importance of the programme to the Government and continue to push for its implementation.