Smoking in South Africa
There has been a downwards trend in current smoking prevalence in the general population in South Africa. Smoking prevalence was 22% overall in 2000 and declined to 20% in 2015, with a further drop to 19% projected by 2025. For men the prevalence decreased from 35% in 2000 to 33% in 2015, with a further decrease to under 32% projected by 2025. For women prevalence was 11% in 2000; this decreased to around 8% in 2015, and is projected to decrease further to around 7% by 2025. The WHO published prevalence trend estimates in tobacco smoking, as shown here, in their 2018 2nd edition report, which show slightly different smoking prevalence to the WHO country profiles. Data for the estimates are not age standardised, and were obtained from WHO databases. The trend lines are projections, not predictions, of future attainment. A projection indicates a likely endpoint if the country maintains its tobacco control efforts at the same level that it has implemented them to date. Therefore the impact of recent interventions could alter the expected endpoint shown in the projection. While the methods of estimation used in the first and second editions of the WHO report are the same, the volume of data available for the second edition is larger i.e. 200 more national surveys. The results presented are therefore more robust.
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August 10, 2023 by southafricatoday.net
Impact of the Conference of Parties (COP) on tobacco control in South Africa
The 10th Conference of the Parties (COP) convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) will be taking place in November 2023 to discuss the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The COP will discuss updates to the approach taken by member states in implementing the FCTC. “It is an appropriate time for leaders in South Africa and elsewhere to indicate the inappropriate stance of WHO and regulators in not supporting the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDs),” says award-winning pharmacological healthcare consultant, Professor Praneet Valodia. “The WHO has an obligation to support smokers and save lives.”
August 03, 2023 by theconversation.com
South Africa’s new vaping tax won’t deter young smokers
Throughout the world, governments impose excise taxes on products like alcohol and tobacco to reduce their demand. The South African government has implemented a tax on vaping products for the same reason. Reducing demand is necessary as there is growing evidence that vaping products are not harmless. The new vaping tax has enraged vaping lobby groups and vaping manufacturers. The vaping industry argues that e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes. It also claims that the tax will spawn an illicit industry, that people will go back to smoking traditional cigarettes, and the tax will not dissuade the youth from starting vaping.
July 27, 2023 by msn.com
Smokers cough up 50% to 80% more in life insurance premiums
The new Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill, which is intended to further regulate the smoking industry, is open for public comment – but how many smokers consider the financial impact of their habits?
First, there’s the actual expense in your grocery budget – a pack of 20 Peter Stuyvesant Red cigarettes cost R46. If you smoke a pack a day, that works out to R322 a week – R1,288 to R1,610 a month. According to Momentum Myriad in 2020, a smoker’s life insurance premium was as much as 80% more than that of a non-smoker.
July 26, 2023 by dailymaverick.co.za
Smokers cough up 50% to 80% more in life insurance premiums
While smokers have long been rated as higher risk when it comes to health and life insurance, people who vape are now also considered candidates with a higher risk.
July 11, 2023 by moneyweb.co.za
Backlash against new tobacco bill gets white hot
Smokers feel they have had it rough these last few years, what with the outright tobacco ban for five months during Covid and tighter restrictions on where and how you can smoke.
Older smokers recall with fondness the days you could smoke on aircraft, in pubs and restaurants, and at the office. Those days are over, but the war on smokers continues, and a quarter of South Africans who smoke don’t like this one bit, as the comments on the Dear South Africa platform make clear.
In future, if the Department of Health (DoH) has its way, retailers will have to hide their cigarette displays from public eyes, cigarettes will come in plain packets, [...]
May 22, 2023 by dailymaverick.co.za
Misleading tobacco industry stealth advertising misrepresents Swedish e-cigarette model
There have recently been misleading calls for South Africa to adopt the Swedish model of regulating e-cigarettes, a model positioned by tobacco-industry supported organisations as making alternative products widely available, instead of regulating or restricting the sale and marketing of these products.
Articles and a full-page advert in the Sunday Times of 30 April 2023 link back to SmokeFreeSweden.org. In fact, Sweden strictly regulates e-cigarettes and the country’s laudable progress in becoming smoke-free is attributable to a long history of strong tobacco control measures starting in 1975.
May 09, 2023 by businesstech.co.za
Smoking in South Africa will never be the same again – taxes, laws and more
Market disruptors such as e-cigarettes have reshaped how the government regulates and taxes smoking in South Africa.
From 1 June 2023, nicotine-substitute solutions, including vaping products, will be taxed at a flat excise duty rate of R2.90/ml – illustrating a keen move by the government to extend the tax net over developing and new methods of smoking in the country.
However, the biggest player in the Tobacco space, British American Tobacco (BAT), as well as the Vapour Products Association of South Africa, have warned that the new tax will likely end up pushing prices up by as much as 138%, forcing consumers to the illicit market.
February 03, 2023 by mg.co.za
The tobacco bill violates human rights
Every South African has the right to equality, the right to access information, the right to healthcare, and the right to life, according to the Bill of Rights enshrined in the constitution. This includes the 12.7 million South Africans who consume nicotine in all forms.
The Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill will rob people of these rights because of the tightened restrictions around one of the most effective tools in reducing harm and achieving smoking cessation.
December 12, 2022 by newsday.co.zw
Adopt new products to curb tobacco-related deaths, African govts told
AFRICAN governments have been implored to adopt new strategies to reduce public health threats caused by tobacco as eight million deaths are recorded every year.
Health experts, who converged in Nairobi, Kenya, last week at the second edition of the Harm Reduction Exchange, noted that the tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced. [...] The experts revealed that all forms of tobacco were harmful where cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco use worldwide.
December 05, 2022 by thrnigeria.org
Smoking: Africa Must Prioritize Harm Reduction – Experts
With about eight million persons dying annually due to smoking-related illness and outright quitting being difficult for most smokers, Africa and, indeed, the global community cannot afford to pay lip service to tobacco harm reduction, experts have warned.
The experts from different fields spoke at an exchange programme with the theme, Harm Reduction: Making a Difference in Africa.
Speaking on the need to prioritize harm reduction, a cross section of the discussants noted that there are plethora of researches which suggest that harm reduction is a veritable tool to lower death and diseases.