WHO and scientists back SA’s tobacco sales ban

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and several research and civil society organisations have thrown their weight behind the government’s reissued ban on tobacco sales as it begins to relax the lockdown, saying the prohibition will both reduce the number of severe cases of Covid-19 and relieve the pressure on the health system.

SA is among a tiny minority of countries that have imposed a ban on tobacco sales as part of its efforts to manage its Covid-19 epidemic, which has affected at least 6,000 people and killed nearly 150.

India and Botswana have also banned the sale of tobacco products, and several other countries are considering following suit, according to the nonprofit National Council Against Smoking (NCAS).

The emerging science on Covid-19 indicates that people who use tobacco products are more likely to become critically ill, to need a bed in intensive care or require mechanical ventilation. They are also at a greater risk of death, the organisations said in a joint statement issued on Monday.

The group includes the WHO, the NCAS, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the Human Sciences Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Cancer Association of SA, Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

They said e-cigarettes had been linked to lung damage and cardiovascular disease during the pandemic, and smokers with Covid-19 were more likely to develop severe levels of the disease than nonsmokers.

There is currently no local data on tobacco use and Covid19, as provincial health departments are not collecting information on the smoker or nonsmoker statuses of patients, according to the department of health’s acting director-general, Anban Pillay.

The WHO’s country director for SA, Owen Kalua, said there was no safe level of exposure to tobacco products and people who kicked the smoking habit even a short while before they become infected with Covid-19 were set to benefit.

“Covid-19 is such a bad disease, you don’t take chances. Any action to minimise [the risks] is a good thing,” he said.

As a signatory to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, SA has an obligation to counter the illicit trade in tobacco products, which could undermine the ban on smoking, Kalua said.

The Medical Research Council’s Catherine Egbe said there are flaws in a widely publicised French study that suggests smokers were much less likely to get infected with the virus that causes Covid-19. It has not been subjected to peer review and one of its lead authors has ties to the tobacco industry, she said.

The study has triggered such interest that the French government has moved to prevent people from stockpiling nicotine products.