Is the revised tobacco bill the final nail to SA tobacco industry?

The South African Tobacco industry and the fast growing vaping industry have slammed government’s Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill as impractical.

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Last month the Department of Health published the newly revised bill on tobacco products which was passed by cabinet outlining the new regulations for operations for tobacco industry and nicotine carrying products.

The regulations seen in the new bill, if passed, will include new plain packaging, with only graphic health warnings, display and sale of cigarettes from vending machines, 100% ban on indoor and outdoor smoking- in the presence of no smokers.

The vaping industry which currently stands with no regulation, have rejected the current bill and have called for a separate bill which will clearly distinguish and categorise the two industries separate so they are not subjected to the same restrictions and regulations for tobacco industry.

They say this was because theirs carries less risk than tobacco products.

Vapour Products Association of SA CEO, Asanda Gcoyi spoke to Urban News about their concerns on the new bill as an emerging industry.

She shared that the new bill was inadequate as it failed to give clear cut definition on the vast difference on the two industries.

“We have always emphasized that we are for regulation and as an industry that has never been a bone of contention however in recognising that there is a difference in smoking and vaping with the latter carrying less risks than tobacco smoking, we are all for a sensible bill that takes into account the two differences.

The current bill does some job of trying to distinguish the two however they fall short because they compound smoking and vaping in some of the recommendations put forward.

“On one hand, they recognise they are not the same but we may be subjected to the same restrictions as smoking.”

Gcoyi said the industry had proposed a separate bill, in this instance, would be able to offer specific aligned guidelines for the new industry.

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“A separate bill recognises that there is what we call harm spectrum and right at the top you have toxicity such as cigarettes, hubbly, then it trickles down, there is e-cigarettes or vaping products less harmful.

So when we understand we can’t eliminate nicotine but we offer an alternative which is less harmful.

So we are saying when we have a separate bill for vaping then you are able to take into account all of the added benefits that come with vaping.

“This is still a relatively new thing compared to tobacco so a separate bill will give the industry an opportunity to grow and have other things because these new generation products are wide.

“There’s a lot more coming, so we need a separate bill which will take into account the possibilities in nicotine provision.”

The CEO further said that government failed to comprehend the severity of the impact of the bill citing its impact would be felt on the economy and jobs and would be the collapse of the industry.

“For the vaping industry, the last economic numbers we did, in 2020 we supported 9720 jobs in our value chain. And the major of the jobs in our association- I would say 80% are small businesses that are ran by individuals who used to be smokers. If this bill was to come to pass in its current form, I grantee you half of the industry would be gone,” she said.

“But for us that’s not just the only issue, in SA we have just over 8 million smokers who some of them are unable to quit in the traditional method so vaping provides and alternative.

A month ago, national treasure approved tax on vaping products which is going to double the prices of vaping products and you have this bill that seeks to regulate almost everything about the industry – there will be no industry left.

The sad thing is that in its current form, the winners are going to be big tobacco companies and this means they will be handing smokers into the illicit market.”

According to Gcoyi, the impact of the bill on advertising, promotion as well as films and publication content is major.The current bill states that the industries will not be permitted to communicate with consumers or place products on display or use forms of advertising for their products.

“If you can’t communicate with your consumers it makes it difficult because people are not so familiar with the different vaping products because it hasn’t been around so on the advertising side, it limits the communication.

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But also for the creative, because packaging now won’t be the same because they can’t come up with graphics etc so it’s an infringement on many levels and the fact that the minister is in solely powers to make recommendations on the industry is even more unacceptable for us.

“If you are going to give the future of an industry to one person, that’s also one thing we need to fight, they cannot give one person these powers to regulate vaping as and when it suits them.”

She went on to add that in 2018, the industry made submissions to the department proposal of regulating vaping products but failed to give feedback.

She added while she was not surprised by the department’s stunts, it was unacceptable that they had never seen or commented on the revised bill before it was published.

She lambasted the department’s move and said the process was flawed, lacked transparency and failed to cater to the industries that would be most affected.

“There hasn’t been enough consultation, or engagement. The bill is completely different to the bill we saw.

“They called us last year March 2021 to say they are engaging us on the submissions we made in 2018. In that three years so much has happened in terms scientific research on vaping and innovation,” she said