Chair, the ACDP supports this Bill which aims to address loopholes in legislation with regard to the advertising, sponsorship, promotion, packaging and labelling of tobacco products.
The Bill also prohibits the sale of tobacco products to and by persons under the age of 18 years and increases the fine for contravening the provisions of the Act. The manufacturers have successfully exploited these loopholes in order to continue advertising their products, and their ingenuity would be impressive if it were not for the reality of the damage done by tobacco products.
In 2006 Judge Gladys Kessler of the United States wrote -
This case is about an industry that survives, and profits, from selling a highly addictive product which causes diseases that lead to a staggering number of deaths per year, an immeasurable amount of human suffering and economic loss, and has a profound effect on our national healthcare system.
One of many important, but highly contested clauses in the Bill prohibits the sale, supply, distribution or buying of any tobacco product through the internet. Without this clause, every computer with internet is, as the department pointed out, like an unattended cigarette vending machine - making it way easier and cheaper for kids to buy cigarettes. Children as young as 11 years old have been successful more than 90% of the time in purchasing cigarettes over the internet in the United States.
Tobacco is a uniquely dangerous consumer product. It is the only legal product that kills the user when used exactly as the manufacturer intends. In South Africa tobacco kills one person every 20 minutes or 30 000 per year. Effective tobacco control legislation is essential and this will necessitate keeping up with, if not ahead of, the tobacco industry's creative ways of getting around existing legislation.
Arguments by the tobacco industry that proposed ... [Time expired.] I thank you.