Media statement

New Tobacco Legislation adopted by NCOP

The laws will help reduce nicotine addiction in children.

Draft legislation which will help in dramatically reducing the ability of cigarette companies to addict young people as well as protecting them from attacks of asthma, wheezing, bronchitis and pneumonia was approved yesterday by the National Council of Provinces’ select committee on social services.

The committee unanimously adopted the Tobacco Product’s Control Amendment Bill No24B of 2006. The Bill will now go to the full NCOP for voting and debate. If approved the Bill will go to the president to be signed into law.  The National Assembly passed the Bill in March.

The purpose of the Bill is to ensure that young people don’t start smoking; to protect non-smokers from pollution caused by tobacco smoke and to help smokers quit.

The Bill will protect children in several ways. Firstly, it will make it more difficult for the cigarette companies to addict kids. The first ever puff a child takes on a cigarette can taste harsh, provoke coughing and cause nausea. Cigarette makers add chocolate, licorice, honey, sugar, menthol and hundreds of other chemicals to tobacco to hide its unpleasant taste and make the smoke ‘smoother” and easier to inhale. Menthol, for instance, numbs the throat, so reducing coughing.

Currently, tobacco manufacturers can add anything they like to tobacco products. Aside from tobacco leaves up to 1400 other chemicals may be added to tobacco products. These substances help increase the appeal of cigarettes and snuff to youth, and make it more difficult to quit and therefore more harmful to the health of the public. The new law will control the substances that can be added to tobacco products so as to ensure that the manufacturers do not add anything which increases the harm or addictiveness of tobacco.

Secondly, the Bill will protect children by banning smoking in childcare facilities and in cars when anyone under twelve years is present.  Those under 18 years will also not be allowed into smoking areas of restaurants, etc. Young children are particularly vulnerable to passive smoking and the new law will help reduce the incidence of asthma, wheezing, bronchitis and pneumonia in this group.

The Bill also increases the current restrictions on smoking in public places. Smoking will be moved away from entrances to public buildings and smoking will be restricted in sports stadia, railway platforms, etc. The fine for restaurants, pubs, bars and workplaces that allow smoking will be increased from R200 to a maximum of R50 000. The fine for an individual who smokes in a public place will be a maximum of R500.

The National Council Against Smoking welcomes the changes to the law. The remarkable decline in smoking rates over the past decade is a testament to the effectiveness of the country’s tobacco control laws. But that does not mean our work on this front is complete.

About 23 percent of South African adults currently smoke, down from 35% in 1995. However, this still means that about 5 million adults continue to put their health at risk and needlessly face the prospect of cancer, heart attacks, lung disease and complications of pregnancy.

The Council is disappointed that the committee elected not to protect domestic workers from secondhand smoke in homes. The Council continues to believe that the right of people to health is more important than the ‘right’ of smokers to pollute the air others have to breathe.

Smoking remains a leading cause of premature, preventable death in South Africa.  Tobacco kills 30 000 South Africans every year (three times more than motor car accidents) and five million worldwide. Our efforts to reduce the death toll will be helped by the new legislation.