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Tobacco Bill: Smoke-free areas not an infringement of smokers' rights, says expert
The proposed Tobacco Bill aims to prohibit smoking indoors and introduce more graphic warning labels to encourage smokers to quit.
Supporters of the Tobacco Bill believe that the right to a healthy environment supersedes any rights smokers may claim to have.
Parliamentary deliberations on the Tobacco Bill are continuing, with the creation of smoke-free public spaces one of the Bill's key objectives.
Presentations trying to tip the scales of opinion in support of the Bill were given on Tuesday to the Portfolio Committee on Health.
Non-smokers' rights first
Patricia Lambert from The Campaign For Tobacco Free Kids began by addressing the argument that smokers would have their rights infringed upon by the bill.
'The answer is emphatically, no!' declared Lambert, a constitutional lawyer by training and former legal advisor to the justice and health portfolios in parliament.
'From a constitutional perspective, the government has the obligation to protect the rights of everyone.
'And because smoke-free policies protect non-smokers and our young people — and they help people to quit — these rights need to be upheld. The right to health needs to be upheld by the South African government,' said Lambert.
'And since no rights are absolute, in terms of our constitution, they can be limited, as long as there is a reasonable justification for that limitation,' she explained.
Lambert's presentation concluded by stating that government should amplify Article 24 of the constitution by regulating all harmful products regardless of their perceived level of harm.
'To not do so would be an abdication of responsibility to protect the health of the South African people' the presentation stated.
Zero smoking indoors
The South African Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance (SANCDA) reiterated the health implications of smoking, including the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancers and respiratory diseases.
The alliance believe e-cigarettes have been shown to have similar long-term effects, which is amplified by the uptick in usage by teenagers.
SANCDA's Elize Joubert used a 2021 tobacco survey to show that roughly 11% of adults were exposed to secondhand smoke at work, 10% at restaurants and 18% at home.
Currently, up to 25% of indoor spaces can be segregated for smoking, but Joubert said that still posed too great a danger to workers and the public alike.
'The complete ban on smoking and the use of e-cigarettes in indoor public places and certain outdoor spaces will protect the right of all citizens to a healthy environment,' stated Joubert.
'Such a ban also promotes quitting and de-normalises smoking and vaping.'
Illicit trade warning
According to Joubert, standardised packaging with larger, more graphic warnings is essential as only 35% of smokers considered quitting when seeing the current variants.
She said that plain packaging — including limiting the design and dimensions of vapes — minimised initiation, motivated quitting and was a cost-effective way to raise risk awareness.
In a presentation against the Bill given last week, Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs at British American Tobacco's sub-Saharan Africa office, Johnny Moloto, said the Bill would allow illicit traders to thrive.
'Every measure that we believe makes legal products less accessible or more expensive, we believe will drive more consumers towards the illicit market, where government has zero control over the contents, quality and age restrictions,' warned Moloto.
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