TOBACCO PRODUCTS CONTROL AMENDMENT BILL

Issued by: Government Communications (GCIS)

TOBACCO PRODUCTS CONTROL AMENDMENT BILL SPEECH BY DR NC ZUMA, THE MINISTER OF HEALTH TO THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES 7 OCTOBER 1998

Chairperson Honourable Members

Let me begin by thanking all of you who have participated in the deliberations over this Bill thus far in particular let met thank the honourable Dr Cwele and all the members of his committee.

South Africa is on the brink of joining the growing number of countries which have taken strong legislative action against tobacco, in response to the global threat to health posed by smoking.

In brief, the Tobacco Products Amendment Bill will do the following:

• it will reduce the pressure on young people to begin a lifelong addiction at age 15 and younger.
• it will protect the constitutional right of the non-smoking majority to a smoke free environment
• It will attempt to reduce the harmfulness of cigarettes for those who cannot or will not stop smoking.

The Bill will do this by:

• prohibiting the advertising and promotion of tobacco products.
• prohibiting the free distribution of tobacco products.
• limiting smoking in public places including the workplace.
• allowing for the regulation of the nicotine and tar levels of tobacco smoke.

I now wish to deal with the rationale for these measures:

1. TOBACCO ADVERTISING

• A ban on tobacco advertising and promotion has been recommended by both the World Health Organization and the World Bank indicating that the measures are prudent in both health and economic terms.
• These organizations recommended restrictions on tobacco advertising for the same reason that the tobacco industry spends vast amounts of money on it - because advertising increases sales and consumption of tobacco.
• Tobacco industry advertising has 3 main purposes. These are, to acquire new users; to hold current ones; and to re-acquire lapsed users of their products.
• These purposes contradict public health goals.
• The policy of this government is to ensure that young people do not start; that current smokers should be assisted to quit; and that ex-smokers should remain tobacco-free.

2. THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY TARGETS CHILDREN

• Children are a key-market for the tobacco industry. Tobacco industry marketing documents released during trails in the United States show that the industries are experts on when, how and why children smoke.
• Some of the best brains in advertising employ all the tools of modern communication to hook children to tobacco. Of course, the tobacco industry denies that it wants children to smoke. They claim that they market to adults. However their internal marketing documents reveal that "the high school student is the base of their business."

3. ADVERTISING BANS REDUCE SMOKING

• The tobacco industry spends R240 million a year on advertising and promotions, yet claims that it does not influence either adults or children to smoke. This argument is preposterous.
• Both the US and UK governments after examining the evidence have concluded that a ban on smoking results in a fall in smoking levels.
• In Norway, Finland, New Zealand and France - four countries with effective bans on tobacco advertising and promotions - cigarette sales decreased by 14 and 37% from the year advertising was totally banned to 1996.

4 SMOKING IN THE WORKPLACE

• It is particularly important to ensure that workplace are smoke free. Many people spend more of their day time at work than at any other place. This in the course of a working life of 40 or more years, exposure to tobacco smoke at work can be considerable.
• It is now a scientific fact that passive smoking causes lung cancer and heart disease in non-smokers.
• In recent years voluntary policies to restrict smoking in the workplace have greatly increased. But large numbers of workers continue to be involuntarily exposed to the dangers of passive smoking. More than 70% of smokers and 90% of non-smokers support restrictions on smoking in public places.
• This Bill will contribute towards a safer and healthier work environment for all.

5. FREE SAMPLES

• The distribution of free samples of cigarettes encourages experimentation with tobacco products by children and young people.
• Teenagers are very price-sensitive and the availability of free cigarettes is an inducement to start smoking or to increase consumption.
• The tobacco industry has distributed free packets of cigarettes at shopping malls, Technikons, universities, colleges and clubs as part of its marketing strategy..

7. SAFER SMOKING

• While there is no such thing as a safe cigarette, it remains the goal of public health to make cigarettes less harmful for those who will not, or cannot, stop smoking.
• Thus this Bill will enable the Minister to set limits on the emission products of cigarettes and to progressively lower the levels of harmful substances in smoke.

ALLOW ME NOW TO TACKLE SOME OF THE KEY ARGUMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN RAISED AGAINST THIS BILL.

• The tobacco industry argues that tobacco is vital to our economy because it creates jobs and is an important farm crop. Yet, despite greatly increased consumption of tobacco in South Africa, since 1950 the number of tobacco farms and the amount of land cultivated have both steadily declined.
• The number of tobacco farms in South Africa has declined and will continue decline even if health legislation is not enacted. The main reasons for job losses in tobacco growing are the activities of the cigarette manufacturers and not actions by health groups.
• The plight of the tobacco growers arises from two factors - the cost and the quality of the tobacco leaf. South African tobacco is both more expensive and inferior in quality compared to Zimbabwean and Malawian tobacco.
• Local cigarette manufacturers have therefore found it more profitable to import tobacco to meet local demand, while unwanted South African tobacco has been exported at a loss. The economic impact has been an outflow in foreign exchange and a loss of jobs.
• The government cannot keep0 our ailing tobacco farm economy alive by sacrificing the health of smokers.
• Moreover, even if all tobacco control measures were adopted, tobacco use would only fall gradually over time.
• Most cigarette-related jobs would remain for many years and the gradual reduction of jobs would allow workers to make an orderly transition.
• Money not spent on cigarettes will still be spent, but for other goods and services, thereby creating new jobs.
• In fast, the United States tobacco industry itself admits: "If the (tobacco) industry would vanish tomorrow, more would find alternative work."
• The main contribution of tobacco to our economy is not jobs and wealth but increased health costs and lost productivity.
• More working days are lost to SA industry each year due to absenteeism caused by smoking related diseases than from strikes.

WHAT ARE THE EMPLOYMENT EFFECTS OF REDUCING TOBACCO CONSUMPTION IN SOUTH AFRICA?

• Chairperson, no government in this country has prioritised job creation and championed the rights and interests of workers like the ANC government. Hence our commitment to the Presidential Job Summit which was announced by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alec Erwin.
• It is therefor absurd for anyone to suggest that this government does not have the interest of workers at heart.
• Mr Chairperson, the facts speak for themselves, regarding the employment effects of reducing tobacco consumption in South Africa.
• Let us consider some of the conclusions on the University of Cape's Project on the Economics of Tobacco Control who studied the employment in the tobacco manufacturing sector in South Africa between 1945 to 1995.
• Their studies showed that: "There was a considerable decrease in employment over the 1960s which was followed by a steady increase in the 1970s and early 1980s. This was followed again by a decline in the late 1980s and early 1990s. From 1985 to 1995 the average decline employment in the industry was 5.6%.
• Yes, the structural adjustment effects of the transition to an economy less dependent on tobacco will not be zero.
• In fact the UCT studies showed that while some jobs would be lost in those sectors immediately associated with cigarette production, there would be a net gain in employment in all other sectors of the economy.
• According to them: "The inescapable conclusion is that stronger tobacco control policies do not jeopardise employment, as the industry argues."

"In addition to the obvious health benefits from using stronger tobacco control policies that impact on tobacco cessation, there are also economic and employment benefits."

"Let us not be fooled: "The principal contribution of the tobacco industry is not as a source of employment or revenue, but it's contribution is in the leading role they play as it source of illness and premature death."

"The fact that stronger tobacco control measures contribute to the country's economic health, is just an additional worthwile side-effect to the fact that it improves the country's public health status."

LET US CONSIDER WHETHER OR NOT A BAN ON TOBACCO ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION IS CONSTITUTIONAL?

• Many people are concerned that a ban on tobacco advertising may be an attack on freedom of speech.
• They say that in opposing such a ban they are not "protecting tobacco but free commercial speech".
• If commercial speech needs protection then so, emphatically, do children also need protection.
• Chairperson, I argue that it is responsible public policy to protect nine and ten year olds from enticements of an industry which wants them to use an addictive drug.
• Almost every constitution, worldwide, including our own constitution, permits restrictions on freedom to protect the welfare of the public.
• Many self-respecting countries with excellent democratic traditions, including France, Australia and Norway, have banned tobacco advertising for just this reason.

Chairperson, Honourable members - now is the time to act.

• Just as surely as smoking causes cancer, so does the industry target our children and the youth.
• Tomorrow's smokers are being recruited today.
• The best way to keep their hands of kids is to ban all tobacco advertising, promotions and sponsorships and to enforce the laws against sales to minors.
• Our children have a right to grow up in a "smoke-free", world, free from addiction to tobacco, and it society's responsibility to guarantee that right for them.
• I urge you, therefore, to act decisively in the interest of our country, and do so now.
• We owe it to the future of this country.
• Just as our forebears waged herole struggles to affirm their dignity and rightful claim to this land.
• Just as the generation of our esteemed President, Comrade Nelson Mandela, sacrificed all to remain true to principle, thereby ushering in this glorious period of political emancipation.
• So too, as today's leaders, are we being called to rise to the challenge of our time. And that challenge is simple:

IT IS TO ACT NOW, TO ENSURE A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL OUR PEOPLE

I sincerely believe, that with the support of this house, the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill, will contribute to that effort.

I thank you!