South African lawmakers have proposed some pretty strict smoking laws, and the tobacco industry is clearly not happy about them.

Those law changes have been debated for a while now, and tobacco lobby groups argue that these changes would lead to plenty of job losses.

The Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Draft Bill, according to BusinessTech, proposes the following strict smoking laws be enforced:

• A zero-tolerance policy on in-door smoking in public places (including the removal of designated smoking areas in restaurants);

• A ban on outdoor smoking in public places;

• When smoking outside, smokers must be at least 10 metres away from public entrances;

• The removal of all signage on cigarette packaging aside from the brand name and warning stickers;

• Cigarettes may no longer be publicly displayed by retailers.

You can read that Draft Bill in full here.

In response to the proposed law changes, industry insiders have spoken out:

“As the sale of illegal tobacco spirals out of control in SA, authorities continue to insist on further restricting the legal industry that complies with current tobacco regulations,” said Bongani Mshibe, JTI’s corporate affairs and communications director for South, East & Central Africa.

“Rather, they should focus their efforts on enforcing the existing and already sufficient regulations, working with the tobacco sector as a whole to combat illegal trade, and concentrate on introducing ’youth-centred’ tobacco prevention programmes.

“It seems South Africans agree with this view. The question is whether anyone is listening to them,” he said.

When Mshibe refers to the fact that South Africans seem to agree with this view, he refers to a recent survey by independent opinion research company, Victory Research.

That survey was commissioned by JTI, an international tobacco company, which may be worth mentioning.

Victory interviewed 1 114 South African adults, aged 18 years and older, between November 14 and November 27 last year.

Here are some of their findings via the Herald:

According to the survey, at least 88% of South Africans agree that if the government wants to reduce youth smoking, its priority should be enforcing existing regulations.

A total of 92% stated that government’s priority should be education programmes in the media and in schools.

Most South Africans (87%) think the health minister should prioritise enforcing existing rules prohibiting the sale of alcohol and cigarettes to minors more effectively.

In addition, respondents expressed a high level of concern about plain packaging resulting in a number of major negative consequences including increasing illegal cigarette sales and counterfeit cigarettes which will benefit organised crime.

Always nice when a study you commission yields the results you’re after, hey?

Last week, in order to draw attention to the proposed law changes and the study above, the Star’s front cover was left blank. Over to Bizcommunity:

Johannesburg’s The Star hit the newsstands with a blank cover…[as] part of online marketing agency, Mediology SA’s launch of their client, Japan Tobacco International (JTI)’s independent research about the inefficacy of unbranded, plain cigarette packaging.

Replicating The Star’s front page as an unprinted wrap topped by a gloomy black and white masthead to replace its iconic red – something that had never been done before – the potentially disempowering impact of censorship was graphically illustrated and unmistakably communicated using the inherent topicality and credibility associated with newspapers – and the front page in particular, explains Michael Pearce, Mediology deputy media director…

According to Pearce, The Star was chosen as newspapers, in general, are still considered the most trusted information source which would therefore inherently underpin the credibility of the research.

Yeah, I’m really not sure media censorship and plain packaging for cigarettes are equatable. That’s quite a reach from where I stand.

There is still some way to go before the Draft Bill is enacted, so this is a battle that could still heat up in the coming months.

[sources:businesstech&herald&bizcommunity]