The department of health (DOH) has come up with a new draft law that will ban the display of tobacco products. If the law is passed, no person will be allowed to sell a tobacco product unless it is hidden from the general view of the public at the point of
sale.
Jo-Anne Collinge, spokesperson for the DOH, said that doors would have to be placed in front of shelves where cigarettes are displayed. The idea, she said, was to prevent the mass advertising that takes place when cigarette boxes are stacked up together.
The new law will also forbid displays that permit a person to handle the tobacco before purchasing it. Terminology on labels that include light, ultra light or mild and the sale of cigarettes through vending machines where it is accessible to those under the age of 16.
If the law is passed the price of tobacco is likely sure to increase. Cigarettes will have to be repackaged in new boxes whose terminology is in line with the proposed laws and boxes will have to be redesigned as to indicate (without the wording) which is a lighter cigarette than the other.
The draft bill was gazetted in October last year and has since been open for comment. The DOH could not say when it would be discussed in parliament.(Source: Lindi van Rooyen: The Saturday Star, 14 February 2004)
Link \//\
Draft Bill
No. 1513 17 October 2003
TOBACCO PRODUCTS CONTROL AMENDMENT BILL, 2004
http://www.polity.org.za/pdf/DraftTobaccoProdContAB.pdf
Or
http://www.gov.za/gazette/bills/2003/25601.pdf
http://www.gov.za/gazette/bills/2003/25601.pdf
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