Pat Sidley
WEDNESDAY — D-day for health warnings on tobacco advertising — was an ultra-light affair:
* Many radio stations were exempted from broadcasting cigarette ads with health warnings.
* Warnings on cigarette packs did not appear after being given a stay of execution
* Some tobacco companies simply withdrew their ads from the marketplace.
Legislation due to have been enforced on June 1 to regulate the advertising of tobacco products — more particularly its unhealthy side-effects — has been severely watered down after intense lobbying by the tobacco industry.
Listeners to 11 radio stations will hear unchanged advertising messages from cigarette companies. They will however get to hear five 30-second slots each day of anti-smoking messages compiled by the Department of
This arrangement came about because some tobacco companies threatened radio stations that if they had to comply with the regulations and compile ads which contained both the health message as well as the sales pitch — they would withdraw all their advertising.
The regulations as they were originally drafted also provided for strong warnings to be placed on packets of
This move, however, met with cries of anguish from the tobacco companies — they could not possibly (in five months) get the new message onto their packages, or get their overseas counterparts to print packages which complied with the regulations. So they have been given until October to put the message on.
This applies to four companies. But a fifth importer of Belgian cigarettes, who was unaware the grace period, has managed to comply with the original regulations and the packets will show the warnings.
The print media have been hit hard by the discomfort of the tobacco companies — but to a lesser extent. Rembrant, one of the world’s big four tobacco companies, is still advertising — with the new health warnings. Camel have withdrawn their print advertisements for three months because of the new rules. The Mail & Guardian was informed of this in
One major company which represents Benson & Hedges and John Player Specials has withdrawn all its print advertising, hitting newspaper companies severely. However, a representative of the agency which represents the brands, denied there was any connection between their move and the new regulations. The company was re-assessing its advertising at the moment, he
The media companies, along with the tobacco companies, were among the few groups who opposed the new regulations when they were being drafted last year.
For those, along with the highest profile non-smoker in the country, President Nelson Mandela, who wish to see a smoke-free environment, there is some hope on the horizon. Susan van Niekerk who is responsible for the tobacco issues in the Department of Health, is in the process of drafting legislation which ought to see smoking in the work place effectively banned. She said this week that the legislation the department envisaged would ban smoking in shared spaces.
Meanwhile, the Medical Research Council presented horrendous statistics this week showing that among certain South Africans, the effects of smoking are disastrous. For instance, in the Western Cape one in five deaths is caused by smoking-related diseases. The death rate from lung cancer has risen some 300 percent among coloured women over the past two decades. And new findings printed in the current British Medical Journal show that women who smoke for 30 years or more are significantly more likely to get breast cancer than their non-smoking counterparts.
The Medical Association of South Africa has called for a dedicated health tax on tobacco products.