Entjie bill is no smoke

Should the new proposed Tobacco Bill be passed, it will see smoking at home become illegal, as well as throw a spanner in the works for the booming e-cigarette and vaping industry, reports IOL.

Cabinet’s Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill was given the green light for submission to Parliament last month.

If the new bill comes into play, smoking indoors, in a car or at home in the presence of a non-smoker will be illegal.

A summary of the bill, in accordance with Rule 271 of the National Assembly, was posted in the Government Gazette in September.

E-cigarettes will be regulated, and advertising and marketing e-cigarettes will be clamped down on, according to Catherine Egbe, a specialist scientist at the South African Medical Research Council.

Egbe was speaking during an interview on national radio. She said there was never any evidence to justify that e-cigarettes and vaping were a healthy alternative to normal entjies.

She explained: “That was just propaganda by the vaping or e-cigarette industry. There was never any evidence. Even South African studies that we have done haven’t shown that people who use e-cigarettes actually quit for good.

“What we found was that they were even more likely to relapse or start smoking again.”

She added: “The other thing the bill will aim to do is regulate electronic cigarettes, which is having a field day right now in SA. There are billboards being erected, you see advertisements, even kiosks showing ‘come and try before you buy’. That will not happen again once this bill passes.”

[email protected]