The vaping industry has called for smarter nicotine policies as South Africa grapples with alarming increases in combustable tobacco smoking rates.
This comes as Parliament continues to hold public consultations on the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill, which seeks to impose stricter product and related product processing, regulate tobacco product and advertising, and standardise the ‘packaging and appearance’ of tobacco and electronic delivery system products.
The Tobacco Bill prohibits leaves no room for any form of display of tobacco and electronic delivery systems, including both nicotine and non-nicotine products.
Delivering oral submissions to the Portfolio Committee on Health on Wednesday, Kurt Yeo from Vaping Saved My Life made a plea not only for regulated alternatives but for a complete paradigm shift in how South Africa views nicotine consumption and tobacco harm reduction.
“I stand before you today, not as an opponent of regulations but a voice for a smarter, evidence-based approach to nicotine policy in South Africa. I represent the perspectives of consumers, especially smokers looking to quit and to those who have chosen safer alternatives. They deserve access to safe alternatives, accurate information, and non-coercive public health policy,” Yeo said.
“In real terms, more people smoke, snort, and chew tobacco than two decades ago, most of whom are in low middle-income countries. I believe it’s because most of the attention has been directed at supply, and not addressing the demand.
“In South Africa, smoking prevalence has surged, from 6.7 million smokers in 2012 to 11.1 million in 2021, a staggering 65.7% increase. This is not due to the lack of regulation, but rather a failure of enforcement and the lack of cessation support. We need a standard set of robust, consistent reporting tools focused on nicotine consumption.”
With a mere 0.78% of South Africans managing to quit smoking in 2021, Yeo said the current policy landscape appeared ineffective, placing undue pressure on smokers by offering little more than ultimatums.
While advocating for alternatives like e-cigarettes and vaping as viable harm reduction tools, Yeo pointed to the necessity of cessation support mandated by the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which South Africa has yet to implement.
“We must be cautious not to criminalise addiction or alienate those trying to quit. Coercion will not achieve the results that education and support can. New evidence shows that non-combustible nicotine products carry significantly less risk. Lifetime cancer risk and toxic exposures are dramatically lower than with smoking,” Yeo said.
“We must shift from the harm-is-harm ideology to the risk continuum approach. That’s what saves lives. E-cigarettes, or vapes, are significantly less harmful than combustible tobacco.”
The Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) said it has become increasingly concerned about the to-date unregulated nature of Vapour Products in South Africa, and to this end sought to address this lacuna.
ARB CEO, Gail Schimmel, said they were in support of the ban in so far as it relates to traditional tobacco products such as cigarettes.
However, Schimmel said vapour products differ from traditional tobacco in one key way as there were “undeniably health benefits” to the traditional smoker who swaps over to vapour products.
“It is submitted that in light of this, it is important to the health of consumers that the industry is able to communicate these important health benefits, in a factual and clear manner, while not encouraging non- smokers to start vaping,” Schimmel said.
“This is an industry that wants to do the right thing. I didn’t have to fight them, they wanted to come on and we worked together and we came up with the Vapour Products Appendix. The part that I’m passionate about was not marketing to minors, not associating vapour products with social prominence, distinction and success and sexiness and things like that. This is very similar to the alcohol code.
“Another very important thing is that they can’t use phrases like safer than, when they compare it to tobacco. They have to be able to substantiate their claims, they can only make natural claims, they cannot make health claims unless they are actually registered as a medicine and they cannot, they have to have warnings like this product contains nicotine and is addictive.”
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