Outdated, Short-sighted and Unscientific Tobacco Bill Will Cost Lives, Say Experts

The new Tobacco & Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill to be presented to the Parliamentary health committee tomorrow is outdated, short-sighted and unscientific and will condemn millions of South Africans to continue smoking deadly cigarettes, according to an alliance of health professionals advocating harm reduction.

By ignoring international evidence and treating safer nicotine alternatives the same as traditional combustible cigarettes, the bill squanders the chance of a smoke-free future for Mzansi, the Africa Harm Reduction Alliance (AHRA) says.

AHRA president Dr. Kgosi Letlape and Secretary-General Dr. Delon Human said: “If South Africa wants to reduce its shockingly high smoking rates, smokers need to be offered safer alternatives to the combustible cigarette, which is the most damaging way to get nicotine.”

“It’s been scientifically proven that modern non-combustible products, like vapes, oral nicotine pouches and heated tobacco products, are significantly less harmful than cigarettes and are the most effective tool for helping smokers to quit.

“But the new bill does not adequately distinguish between combustible and non-combustible tobacco and nicotine products. Applying anti-tobacco policies to smoke-free nicotine alternatives is dangerously inappropriate and short-sighted. It means that many smokers who are desperate to quit, will in fact be criminalised and be prevented from making the switch that could help to save their lives.”

Tomorrow the Department of Health will reveal some of the world’s harshest restrictions on alternative nicotine products when it briefs the health committee on the Tobacco Products & Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill.

The bill will prohibit vapes and pouches from being sold as less-risky alternatives, ban them from display and introduce a wide range of new offences – including vaping in your own flat if your neighbour objects, or in a car carrying a non-smoker – that will incur draconian punishments of up to five years in jail. 

Dr. Letlape said that South Africa, where at least one in five adults smokes cigarettes, should be following the example of Sweden, which is set to achieve smoke-free status this year. 

“We should be following the science, instead of blocking access to less harmful smoke-free alternatives for adult smokers who are simply trying to quit their cigarette habit,” Dr. Letlape said.

“Sweden’s success at virtually wiping out smoking is built around its policy of making alternative nicotine products affordable, acceptable and available to adult smokers.

“South Africa is about to make these same products expensive, misunderstood and out-of-reach in direct defiance of the overwhelming evidence showing their potential benefits for public health. 

“Banning communication around these products means adult smokers won’t be informed about alternatives, while prohibitive taxes will make them unaffordable.

“Just as AIDS denialists prevented the timely rollout of anti-retroviral drugs to HIV sufferers in our country, the new bill risks condemning millions of smokers to unnecessarily premature death or disease.

“The cost of the bill should be measured in the millions of life years that could be saved through the use of alternatives.

“Instead of an unscientific one-size-fits-all tobacco policy, we need new regulations based on modern science and the relative harms caused by alternative nicotine products and we should be promoting access to these cessation-inclined and less harmful products.”