SMOKERS will only able to enjoy their cigarettes in the comfort of their own home.

This according to Minister of Health Jerry Narace during a press briefing to update the public about the amendment to the 2009 Tobacco Bill at the Ministry’s Park Street head office in Port of Spain yesterday.

’People can smoke in their private residences if they wish to, except when the house is used for the purposes of manufacturing, distribution, or trade,’ he said.

It will, however, still be an offence for any person to smoke or hold a lighted tobacco product in any enclosed public place such as public transportation terminals, workplaces, bars, restaurants, shopping malls, clubs, cinemas, and sports facilities or any enclosed workplace.

When asked why bars were also included as no smoking zones, chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Cancer Society, George Laquis said ’second hand smoke kills’ and since a lot of people who don’t smoke go to bars, it was simply a matter of protecting them.

Narace said there was no provision to protect children from smoking parents in the home since that clause had to be removed in order to get support for the legislation.

As for prohibiting the sale of individual cigarettes, tobacco products through any self-service means, including the mail, the Internet or automatic vending machines, Narace insisted that it was all ’for the children’.

’Evidence tells us that 90 per cent of persons begin smoking before 20 years of age, thus the probability of initiation after the adolescence age is very low. In essence, if the tobacco companies can’t target them when they are young, you allow them to reach 20, 21 years and not be smokers,’ he said.

The amended bill, which will be debated in the Senate today, also prohibits persons from importing, manufacturing, selling, displaying for sale, distributing or supplying, any sweets, snacks, toys or other non-tobacco items or objects in the form of tobacco products.

But even with this large scale of proposed bans, Narace insisted that all the clauses in the Bill were constitutionally sound.

’The Attorney General has assured us that there is no issue with the constitutionality of the Bill and he will speak to that tomorrow (today),’ he said.