South Africa: smoking laws working

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).