{"id":243471,"date":"2018-05-10T08:13:58","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T06:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=243471"},"modified":"2018-05-10T08:22:48","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T06:22:48","slug":"6-changes-to-south-africas-new-smoking-laws-which-you-need-to-know-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/243471\/6-changes-to-south-africas-new-smoking-laws-which-you-need-to-know-about\/","title":{"rendered":"6 changes to South Africa&#8217;s new smoking laws which you need to know about"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Health has officially released its <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.za\/sites\/default\/files\/41617_gon475re.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Draft Tobacco Bill<\/a><\/strong> for public comment.<\/p>\n<p>Among other proposals, the Draft Bill plans to ban smoking in certain public spaces and significantly clamp down on what advertising may be used to promote tobacco products.<\/p>\n<p>These changes include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A zero-tolerance policy on in-door smoking in public places (including the removal of designated smoking areas in restaurants);<\/li>\n<li>A ban on outdoor smoking in certain public places;<\/li>\n<li>The removal of all signage on cigarette packaging aside from the brand name and warning stickers;<\/li>\n<li>Cigarettes may no longer be publicly displayed by retailers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While a number of these proposed changes have been well documented in the media, the official publication of the regulations has also revealed a number of other proposals which could prove to be more controversial among the South African public.<\/p>\n<p>According to\u00a0a American Cancer Society (ACS) report <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/231261\/heres-how-many-south-africans-still-smoke-every-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released<\/a> <\/strong>in March,\u00a0more than\u00a055,000 children\u00a0(10-14 years old) and<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>6,321,000 adults\u00a0(15+ years old) continue to use tobacco each day in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>This means that a large portion of the population is likely to be affected by the regulations &#8211; while arguably an even larger number of people are likely to benefit from the reduction of harmful second-hand smoke.<\/p>\n<p>These other changes include:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>A ban on smoking in any motor vehicle when a child under the age of 18 years is present and there is more than one person present in that vehicle.<\/li>\n<li>An extension of these laws\u00a0to not only cigarettes, but also any\u00a0devices used in connection with tobacco products and electronic delivery systems such as pipes, water pipes and electronic devices.<\/li>\n<li>A ban on smoking in any enclosed common areas of a multi-unit residence.<\/li>\n<li>The Minister may\u00a0prohibit smoking in any outdoor public place or workplace if they believe it would be in the public interest.<\/li>\n<li>Stricter rules on the depiction of any tobacco products &#8211; including a ban on the sale of any confectionery or toy that resembles or is intended to represent a tobacco product.<\/li>\n<li>Harsh jail time or a fine depending on the severity of the offence. For example those caught smoking in banned areas will receive a fine or or prison time up to 3 months, while those found guilty of manufacturing or importing tobacco products which do not meet the new requirements and existing standards could face a fine and imprisonment of up to 10 years.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/243359\/new-laws-are-needed-to-fix-south-africas-massive-migration-problem-officials\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New laws and spending are needed to fix South Africa\u2019s massive migration problem: officials<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the ban on public smoking has been well documented in the media, the official publication of the regulations has also revealed a number of other proposals which could prove to be more controversial among the South African public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":230075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-243471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243471"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243495,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243471\/revisions\/243495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}