Government pushes plain cigarette packs

Smoking " and stopping it " among the youth is a big health challenge, says Dr Vash Mungal-Singh, chief executive of the Heart and Stroke Foundation SA.

Smoking " and stopping it " among the youth is a big health challenge, says Dr Vash Mungal-Singh, chief executive of the Heart and Stroke Foundation SA.

Published May 31, 2016

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Cape Town - The government has vowed to forge ahead withintroducing plain packaging on tobacco products in order to reduce demand.

Pictures warning the public of the health dangers posed by cigarettes may also be included on packets in future, along with the current verbal health warnings, said Joe Maila, spokesman for Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.

Measures additional to those contained in the Tobacco Products Control Act may be introduced to enable this and to “further align” domestic legislation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

As part of World No-Tobacco Day, which is commemorated on Tuesday, the WHO has urged governments to introduce plain packaging, saying this saves lives by reducing the demand for tobacco products.

Plain packaging of cigarettes not only restricts the use of logos, colours, brand images and promotional information on packaging, but also standardises the colours and fonts of product names, making packages less attractive.

Such packaging is recommended by WHO as part of a comprehensive approach to tobacco control, which includes large graphic health warnings and bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

“The introduction of the graphic health warnings in South Africa is necessary to strengthen the existing packaging and labelling of tobacco products, in order to achieve greater public awareness and education on the harmful effects of tobacco," Maila said.

“This shall limit the demand for the tobacco products and make tobacco products look less attractive and appealing.

“The main intention is to standardise the shape and formats, such as font style and size including the brand name, health warnings, health messages and other messages which include plain packaging.”Dr Yusuf Saloojee, executive director of the National Council Against Smoking, welcomed the progress in introducing plain packaging, saying it was “long overdue”.

Smoking kills about 44 000 South Africans every year. Saloojee said. Plain packaging “conveys the brutal facts about smoking” and had an “important educational impact with their large pictorial health warnings about the dangers of tobacco use”.

Saloojee said while many people knew that smoking was bad for their health, few knew how severe the consequences could be. “Tobacco does not just kill but it can leave its victims breathless, speechless and unable to walk.”Australia became the first country to mandate plain packaging for cigarettes in 2012 as part of a bid to reduce smoking rates.

France and Britain are among other nations that have since followed suit. But big tobacco firms including Philip Morris, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco have launched legal challenges against such laws, arguing they impinge on their trademark rights.

However, the courts in the countries in which the companies fought the legislation have upheld the governments' right to protect public health.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation expressed concern about the number of smokers in South Africa. The foundation's chief executive, Vash Mungal-Singh, argued that while the country had progressive tobacco legislation, “still too many South Africans smoke or are exposed to second-hand smoke”.

“One in five South Africans and 30 percent of males smoke tobacco. Currently one in five adolescents smoke and 6.8 percent of adolescents smoked their first cigarette before the age of 10 years,” she said.

The local authority in Cape Town, which polices adherence to smoking regulations, said it received an average of eight complaints concerning smoking every month.

Mayco member for health Siyabulela Mamkeli described the number of complaints as “very small”, but said the council had “seen an increase in the number of enquiries about e-cigarettes, especially from businesses that are not sure how to regulate the use of these devices".

"We are still awaiting an instruction from the national Health Department who is responsible for smoking legislation and any amendments to it,” he said.

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