Improving public health
and cream soda flavours encourage young people to start smoking as it makes the taste more palatable.
The vapour in e-cigarettes can cause serious harm to health as some contain nicotine and other toxins which can cause restriction of blood vessels, which has been linked to heart disease. Vapour can remain on the lungs and this could lead to lung disease.
The Bill proposes that there be no indoor use of e-cigarettes, no advertising and sponsorship, no sale to children under the age of 18 and provides for health warnings on packaging.
South Africa joins 83 other countries that regulate e-cigarettes, including Brazil and Singapore.
The packaging of tobacco products will change too. The ATIM study found that more than 50% of smokers notice text warnings, more than two thirds (73%) read the text warning but only 13% of smokers are motivated by the text warnings to quit.
wChange was needed to ensure that South Africans notice the health warnings on the package.
The Draft Bill introduces uniform packaging for all brands of cigarettes and pictorial warnings on all packages. This will remove all advertising on the tobacco package, and make it harder to ignore the health warning.
Plain packaging, as this intervention is called, has resulted in a significant drop in consumption in Australia where it was introduced in 2012. In 2014, 5% of 12 to 17-year-olds were current smokers, down from 7% in both 2011 and 2008.
When the Draft Bill becomes law, vending machines will no longer sell cigarettes or any other tobacco product, and all advertising at the point of sale of cigarettes will be removed completely.
Improving public health
Tobacco use is one of the top five risk factors that contribute to South Africa’s burden of disease burden. It increases the risk of several chronic diseases including cancers, pneumonia, ischaemic heart disease and stroke. Smokers also face double the risk of developing tuberculosis than nonsmokers.
South Africa’s smoking rates are the highest on the continent – and the current trends show that these figures will increase over the next 15 years.
The introduction of new tobacco control legislation should be seen for what it is: South Africa’s response to the escalating increase in non-communicable diseases such as cancers, heart disease and strokes.