What has worked in other countries

The health minister wants to crack down even harder on smoking – and that includes e-cigarettes

HE USED to be cool. Tanned and handsome, he sat on his horse and looked as if he owned the world as he lit up and dragged on his cigarette. But that was in his heyday. Today the Marlboro Man is on life support.

Thanks to anti-smoking laws, tobacco advertising has gone from glamorous images to small health warnings, then bigger health warnings, then the shock tactic of horrific pictures showing exactly what smoking can do to the human body. And if health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has his way, regulations in SA will become even stricter.

The proposed new laws will force tobacco companies to package their products in plain brown paper without logos or colour, ban the selling of cigarettes at shop counters and ban cigarette dispensers.

SA’s tough smoking laws are working, the health minister said, but need to be amended to bring the country in line with global trends and the guidelines of the World Health Organisation (WHO). “Smoking has no place in modern life,” Dr Motsoaledi added.

But some question the need for more restrictions if current regulations are working – there has been a steady decline in smoking in SA over the past 15 years. By JACQUES MYBURGH

The smoking rate is now below 20 percent of adults (considered to be age 15 and up), says Professor Corné van Walbeek of the Economics Of Tobacco Control Project at the University of Cape Town. However, the decline in tobacco use seems to have slowed and has plateaued in the past two years.

But will the new laws make a difference? Should the health minister grind the stompie even harder into the ground? Australia has some of the strictest smoking regulations in the world. Smoking is banned in a car with children in it and is not allowed on beaches or at sports grounds. Offenders are given hefty fines.

Australia’s cigarettes are also among the most expensive in the world – the equivalent of about R216 a packet.

The country introduced graphic warnings on cigarette packets in 2006, with 30 percent of the front and 90 percent of the back taken up by shocking images of diseased lungs and gangrenous feet, among other things.

These measures resulted in a significant decline in smoking, according to Australia’s Cancer Association. The percentage of adult smokers dropped from 24 percent in 1997 to 14,7 percent in 2011. A 10 percent drop over 14 years might not seem like a lot but it’s in fact impressive, Professor van Walbeek says.

“In fact, it’s among the most impressive decreases in smoking prevalence in the world,” he adds. “A drop like this means four out of every 10 smokers in 1997 have quit in the subsequent 14 years.”

In December 2012 Australia became the first country to introduce plain packaging – what SA’s health minister wants to put in place here – and the size of the graphic warning on the front was increased to 75 percent of the packet. This resulted in a significant drop in the number of smokers.

Canada was the first country to introduce graphic warnings in 2001, with the picture covering 50 percent of the display space. In 2012 this was amended to 75 percent.

“More than 50 countries now use graphic health warnings on cigarette packets,” Professor van Walbeek says.

Thailand currently has the biggest, with 85 percent of each pack covered by images of cancerous lungs, decaying teeth, rotting gums and mouth and throat tumours.

According to the WHO graphic messages work better than written ones, especially in countries where literacy is low.

Banning smoking in public places has been effective in Europe – according to the European Commission, smoking prevalence has dropped from 36 percent of adults in 2009 to 28 percent in 2016.