Above: Kingston (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaica’s government is seeking to put in place a “Tobacco Control Act” that would prohibit smoking in public areas and work places, according to Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson.

The act, which is currently in the draft stage, could be brought to Parliament in the 2013/2014 financial year, he said.

“My position is not just an anti-smoker position,” he said this week at the Mayfair Hotel in St Andrew. “It is a position born out of the fact that as Minister of Health, I have a responsibility to protect the health of the nation.”

He said the move would not “be an easy task relative to the tobacco industry and tobacco lobbyists.”