Tobacco advertising

WHO calls for a ban on all forms of direct and indirect advertising, promotion and sponsorship by the tobacco industry to protect young people from experimenting and becoming regular tobacco users. National Council Against Smoking (NCAS) calls on public to write to MPs and political parties to support laws that will stop the industry targeting kids. On World No-Tobacco Day, May 31, the World Health Organization (WHO) calls on governments, communities and individuals to take action to reduce the health, social and economic harms caused by tobacco use.

SA's tough antismoking laws, high duties on tobacco products, competition from illegal imports and the domination of the local cigarette market by British American Tobacco (BAT) are not enough to deter international tobacco groups from setting up shop here.

SA's tough antismoking laws, high duties on tobacco products, competition from illegal imports and the domination of the local cigarette market by British American Tobacco (BAT) are not enough to deter international tobacco groups from setting up shop here.

About five million people die each year from smoking-related diseases The world's first global health treaty - the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control - has come into force.

Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill brings SA into line with new international conventions, strengthens tobacco control, and promotes health. The National Council Against Smoking applauds the publication today of the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill. The Bill contains many vital public health provisions. The Bill is important in helping to communicate accurate and understandable information to the public. Picture health warnings on packs will communicate the dangers of smoking in a realistic way. It will also end a consumer fraud perpetrated on the public by the industry. Many smokers mistakenly believe that low-tar cigarettes are safer than regular cigarettes. The use of terms like light and mild deliberately perpetuate this myth. There is no scientific evidence that one type of cigarette is less toxic or less harmful than any other. The Bill also gives teeth to the current restrictions on smoking in public places. Restaurants and bars may have disregarded a puny R200 fine but will have to take a R20 000 fine more seriously. Part of the role of a fine is to deter and the new fines will deter law-breakers. Those who comply with the law have nothing to fear from the new fines. There can be no doubt that high penalties will be a deterrent an ensure still greater levels of compliance with the law. This is necessary particularly in the hospitality and entertainment industries where we see the lowest levels of compliance with the tobacco laws. This is a business sector where clients and staff need greater protection said Dr Yussuf Saloojee, executive director of the National Council Against Smoking. The tobacco industry has by-passed the prohibition on tobacco advertising and continued to glamourise cigarettes by sponsoring parties and social events for young students. This is a clear violation of the spirit and purpose of the 1999 Tobacco Act,added Saloojee The Bill will ensure that this practice ends and make it more difficult for the industry to addict the next generation. The tobacco and hospitality industry will raise the usual arguments about financialand job losses caused by the new Bill but in country-after-country these claims have proved to be spurioussaid Peter Ucko, director of the National Council Against Smoking. The New York Times on Wednesday, 15 October 2003 noted that despite the dire economic predictions that preceded it, the smoking ban in New York City does not appear to have drastically depressed business. From March to June, the city created 10 000 new restaurant and bar jobs, according to the Department of Labour. Tobacco control makes good health and economic sense. (Source: Peter Ucko: Director, National Council Against Smoking http://www.againstsmoking.org/>www.againstsmoking.org 17 October 2003). Link:http://www.polity.org.za/pol/bill/

South Africa became one of the first signatories to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) on Monday, the health department said.Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang signed the convention on behalf of South Africa in Geneva, Switzerland. The convention aims to ban tobacco advertising, to highlight health warning labels on tobacco products, to protect the public against secondary smoking, to control the illicit tobacco trade and to promote tobacco taxes. It will become law once 40 countries have ratified the convention. Current tobacco control measures in South Africa were largely consistent with the minimum requirements of the convention. The South African Tobacco Control Amendment Act was currently being amended to bring it fully in line with the convention. Some of the proposed amendments to the Act include banning the use of terms like light, mild and extra mild on tobacco products, raising the age restriction on tobacco sales from 16 to 18 years and enlarging health warnings to cover at least 50 percent of tobacco product containers. (Source: Sapa, IOL, June 16 2003)

Health legislation to reduce smoking is working, according to Peter Ucko, Director of the National Council Against Smoking. Smoking rates have been dropping, from 40 billion cigarettes smoked in 1991 to 23 billion smoked last year, a decrease largely due to increases in cigarette taxes. The introduction of health warnings on cigarette packages (1995) and the ban on cigarette advertising (2001) have also contributed to the decrease. Ucko has called for higher fines for restaurant and bar owners who allow smoking in contravention of the law. Currently, 22% of South Africans over the age of 15 are estimated to smoke. In a recent study directed by the Heart Foundation, there are currently 3.5 million smoking related deaths per year. Comment: This is a most encouraging report from a country which, little more than ten years ago, must have seem a wonderful prospect for BAT and other tobacco companies. Thanks to great political courage, it has set a standard for all of Africa, and for the world. (Source:IATH Bulletin - MAY 2003 - No. 138 28 May 2003) Editor's note: Saturday, May 31, is World No-Tobacco Day. The World Health Organization's theme for this year is tobacco free film, tobacco free fashion. ACTION

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised its estimate of the number of deaths caused by smoking every year from 4.2 million to 4.9 million. The announcement came ahead of the resumption of talks on a global treaty to curb smoking, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), in Geneva today. WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland said that when the process was started, tobacco killed four million people every year. That figure now stands at 4.9 million people per year. The talks between more than 120 ofthe WHO's member states began in October 2000. They are aimed at setting up global rules to curb advertising, marketing and sales of tobacco products by the middle of next year. A draft version of the treaty advocates the elimination of tobacco advertising and sponsorship worldwide. It would also outlaw labelling such as low tar or light on cigarette packs, which the WHO regards as misleading. The proposals call for the eventual prohibition of duty-free sales of tobacco, measures to stop smuggling, and aim to phase out subsidies for tobacco farming and manufacturing. (Source: SAPA-AFP, 11 October 2002)

Children are heeding health warnings about the dangers associated with cigarette smoking. A national survey of 1 400 South African children, aged between five and eight years, found that most declared they would never smoke. Many complained that it was unhealthy, antisocial and affected personal hygiene. Some of the comments made by the children included: People smoke, drink liquor and get drunk. When they get home, they curse their grandmothers. You'll be sick and you'll die from cancer if you smoke. The survey - which compared answers with a similar survey conducted a few years previously - found that fewer children were experimenting with smoking. Researchers were interested in gauging children's perceptions of smoking in the wake of new South African legislation banning cigarette advertising. (Source: Sunday Times, 9 June 2002)

The Health Department will this year make it a crime to disobey government tobacco regulations the current law is seen as unenforceable - and will extend the advertising and sponsorship ban to alcoholic products. This could hit the wine industry as hard as the tobacco laws hit the tobacco industry - ending for example, TV advertising on wine, beer and spirits. New laws due this year include the National Health Bill, new medicine control regulations and pharmacy regulations, and the Bills to control tobacco products and alcohol products, Parliament's Health Committee was told yesterday. The existing Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act has been thrown out by some courts and is not enforced by the police on the grounds that it does not constitute a criminal offence. However, two youths were last year sentenced to imprisonment when they could not pay fines for smoking in a public place. This year the government proposes to ensure that action can be taken against people who disobey the smoking regulations. Dr Kany Chetty, deputy director-general of the Health Department, said it was intended to implement the tobacco controls, looking at the issues around the sentences and the fines and a more effective monitoring. Francois van der Merwe, chairman and CEO of the Tobacco Institute of SA representing the industry from farmers to cigarette manufacturers, attended yesterday's health committee briefings, He said the Institute had not been fully consulted, and needed to speak with government to ensure that the new laws were reasonable and practicable. The committee was told that the major piece of legislation was the National Health Bill. Public comment closed on February 9 and a revised measure would be presented to Cabinet for approval before it was tabled in Parliament. (Source: The Citizen, 20 February 2002)