Legislation could see tobacco industry go up in smoke

Personally, I say turn up the heat, since I don’t smoke and smoking by all accounts is just dangerous. I know, I will feel the heat for saying so, but smokers needs to realise, in the words of Bob Dylan, that the times are changing.

Today (Tuesday, May 31), is World No Tobacco Day. This is of course a day that smokers will never celebrate.

Yes, every day is some or other day celebrating something or other, but what makes this year a bit more special is that the World Health Organisation is calling countries to get ready for plain (standardised) packaging of tobacco products.

Yes, you read right. It seems according to the WHO, plain packaging is an important demand reduction measure that reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products, restricts use of tobacco packaging as a form of tobacco advertising and promotion, limits misleading packaging and labelling, and increases the effectiveness of health warnings.

Talk about effective marketing going up in smoke!

Right here in South Africa the government is also looking to push for plain packaging.

This may sound ludicrous to some, and for others a complete waste of time considering all the other evils we face in our Rainbow Nation, but good old Australia has been pioneering this measure on tobacco plain packaging since December 2012.

This initiative, brought to you by the land of venomous spiders and snakes, have been actively supported by the WHO and is being watched closely by other countries.

Let us just be honest (since you cannot fight the overwhelming medical and scientific research), tobacco use remains one of the main risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including cancer, lung diseases, and cardiovascular diseases.

Despite this, it is common throughout the world.

A number of countries have legislation restricting tobacco advertising, and regulating who can buy and use tobacco products, and where people can smoke.

South Africa became one of the first countries in the world to ban smoking in public places in 2000 when it introduced its Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act (since then rest of its efforts towards service delivery has also gone up in smoke).

The act has since put a serious dent in the smoking culture in South Africa, as it prohibited smoking in restaurants, pubs, shopping centres and offices where there was no separate, enclosed smoking room.

But of course, people will still smoke, so you have to wonder if plain packaging will be the ace up the sleeve.

To return to the land down under, it was on December 1 four years ago that Australia’s world-first laws on tobacco plain packaging came into full effect.

Since then, all tobacco products must be sold in standardized drab, dark brown packaging with large graphic health warnings. There are no tobacco industry logos, brand imagery, colours or promotional text.

The reason for this packaging is that it was deemed that tobacco is unlike any other product on the market for it is the only legal consumer product that kills when used as intended by the manufacturer.

In the meantime, while tobacco companies fight to survive, the WHO has warned that the tobacco ‘epidemic’ could claim one billion lives in the 21st century.

And this is not the end of the heat being turned up.

One of the largest insurance companies in the world, Axa, has recently announced it will stop investing in the tobacco industry.

The firm, which has more than 10 million customers in the UK, has also pledged to sell investments worth more than £1.7bn (around R44-billion or so).

Incoming chief executive Thomas Buberl said it makes no sense for the company to continue investing in the industry.

At the end of the day, we will have to see what happens with plain packaging and what countries will do to halt the love for tobacco products.

The full effects of the plain packaging measure will be seen over the long term.

Question is, maybe it is all too late as the culture of tobacco use is deeply entrenched in societies and part of life for millions.

Apart from the smokers who continue to frown upon anti-tobacco legislation, consider also the myriad of companies that benefit from tobacco sales – they who sell all kinds of tablets, pills, stickers, and gadgets in order to help people to quit smoking.

These companies thus stand a chance to lose a lot of money if the smoking habit takes a further nosedive.

So watch this space, which is for now hazy from all the smoke.