No-smoking advocates object to Carreras billboard
KINGSTON, Jamaica — A billboard erected at Twickenham Park in St Catherine close to cigarette-distributers Carreras has irked anti-smoking advocates who have demanded its removal.
“Last week, the world celebrated World No Tobacco Day. We did so at the Smoke-free Action Coalition in Spanish Town where we have the first smoke-free square in the Caribbean.
Two days later Carreras erected a large billboard,” the advocates said in a letter Monday.
The organisation said that it is objecting to the erection of the billboard and has written to Carreras managing director Marcus Steele “inviting him to take it down”.
According to the no-smoking advocates Jamaica signed onto the Framework Convention in the early 2000 and since then nothing has been done.
“The government of Jamaica does not fund us and it is sad that so many people are dying here, while the national medical bill mounts. This does not prevent us for doing our work on no funds at all.”