Unsmoking South Africa

GAUTENG – The Control of the Tobacco and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill is a crucial cog in the journey to ensuring that health is indeed one’s wealth. Inherently each person is responsible for their health – however, the math it is not always that simple and the draft bill that is currently before Parliament is aimed at strengthening South Africa’s public health protection measures.

If passed, the bill will institute smoke-free indoor public and certain outdoor places, ban the sale of cigarettes through vending machines; introduce plain packaging with graphic health warnings/pictorials; ban display at point of sale, and regulate as well as control Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) and Non-Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENNDS). The bill seeks to repeal the current Tobacco Products Control Act, 1993 (Act 83 of 1993), as amended. It seeks to strengthen the country’s public health measures and align them with the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to which South Africa is party to the framework.

According to the GATS-SA, about 29.4% of South Africans use one form of tobacco product or the other. There are about 25.8% of South Africans using one form of smoked tobacco product or the other, while about 4.3% are using the smokeless products like the snuff, chew tobacco, and so on. This doesn’t include electronic cigarettes. This is just tobacco products. The results of the GATS-SA also shows that the bill has public support for 100% smoke-free public places with 88.4%, or nine out of 10 adults supporting a ban on smoking in indoor workplaces and public places.