Cigarette alternatives, like vaping, are doing the opposite of what they’re supposed to do: instead of weaning existing smokers off tobacco, they are actually wooing young South African consumers.
This was one of the findings of the 2021 Global Adult Tobacco Survey in South Africa (GATS-SA) presented at at a seminar hosted by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) last week, reports News24.
The survey comes as the government and South Africans consider the Control of Tobacco and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill. The Bill wants to impose regulations on alternatives to combustible cigarettes like vaping products and heating systems, including a ban on marketing, vending machines and public use indoors or outdoors.
Anti-tobacco organisations have vowed to support the Bill and any other measures introduced by the government, to make it as hard as possible for people to access tobacco alternatives.
The Bill was introduced in 2013 but is listed as a 2018 Bill because it was renamed and updated with restrictions on tobacco product alternatives. It will appear in Parliament later this year, say Department of Health officials.
The 2008 Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act currently in force has not been updated in more than a decade and has no measures for regulating new-generation products like vapes, reports Business Day.
The new Bill proposes a complete ban on smoking in public places, introduces plain packaging, regulates e-cigarettes, prohibits point-of-sale advertising and scraps vending machine sales.
Lorato Mahura from the Health Department’s health promotion unit has issued an apology “to the people of South Africa”, saying the failure to update anti-smoking laws and the lack of regulation for new-generation products, including vapes, had caused harm and resulted in damage, reports News24.
SA’s smoking rates dropped between 1998 and 2012, from 32% to 18%, but have risen since 2016 as the government failed to keep pace with the tobacco industry’s tactics, Mahura said.
The GATS-SA survey found 41.7% of men and 17.9% of women used tobacco products, with an overall adult prevalence of 30.3%.
“We are in this situation because we don’t have good laws,” said Mahura, expressing optimism that the measures contained in the Bill would curb smoking and the use of e-cigarettes.
GATS-SA conducted its research by surveying 6,311 South Africans, aged 15 and older, with a response rate of 92%.
A business of pied pipers?
GATS-SA specialist scientist Dr Catherine Egbe said there was a 23.9% prevalence of manufactured cigarette consumption countrywide. Among emerging products, hookah had a 3.1% prevalence while e-cigarettes had a 2.2% prevalence, the highest among young consumers, she said.
“We hear the industry say that their products help wean smokers off cigarettes. But they are merely switching addictions. If you have the highest prevalence of cigarette consumption among people aged 45 to 64, you should see the rise among that age group in these alternatives. What you see is, these new products are targeting the youth,” Egbe said.
She added that 74.4% of respondents said they were exposed to some or other form of smoke in places of public gathering, like pubs, bars and restaurants, and 88.4% of respondents believed South Africa needed an all-out ban of smoking in work places, especially indoors.
While 80% of cigarette smokers noticed the warning labels on cigarette cartons, only 35% of smokers in the survey considered quitting because of the labels, she added, pointing out that e-cigarettes were brightly coloured and prominently displayed in shopping malls.
The use of e-cigarettes was highest among survey respondents aged between 15 and 24, at 3.1%, and lowest among those aged between 45 and 64, who had the highest prevalence of smoking (28.6%). If e-cigarettes were an effective cessation tool, their use should be much greater among the older age group, she said.
The researchers also asked e-cigarette users how long they had been vaping to test the hypothesis that they help users quit cigarettes, and found that more than a fifth (21%) had been using e-cigarettes for more than two years.
“When they market to smokers, they actually want them to switch addictions. That is worrying. We want people to quit for good. When they quit tobacco we want them to be free of nicotine as well,” said Egbe.
E-cigarettes use a heated coil to vaporise nicotine, which is then inhaled by the user.
The study included more than 6,300 people aged 15 and older, and was conducted in all nine provinces. The prevalence of smoking was highest in Northern Cape (42.3%) and lowest in Limpopo (13.6%).
Most smokers began using tobacco as teenagers, with 18% doing so before they were 15, and 43% taking up the habit before the age of 16. Respondents expressed strong support for increasing taxes on tobacco and nicotine products.
“The electronic cigarette industry is exploiting a policy vacuum to market and display products in this way," said Egbe. “The survey found that 21% (of the 16-24 age group) had been using e-cigarettes for more than two years. Around 10% have used them for more than a year.”
Young people, she said, needed to be “protected” from being “recruited” by producers of the new products.
Deputy director of the National Council Against Smoking Sharon Nyatsanza said they wanted to see the tobacco industry taxed as high as 70%, in line with the World Health Organisation standard.
Businesses in the tobacco alternatives sub-sector warned that taxes and regulations on their products would increase costs for a product more expensive to produce than combustible cigarettes, and possibly put jobs on the line if considered without due consultation.
Global-Adult-Tobacco-Survey-GATS-SA
News24 article – Vaping industry is exploiting policy vacuum in SA, expert says (Open access)
BusinessDay PressReader article – Upgrade of outdated tobacco law on the way at last (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Adolescent vaping – monitoring needed to detect potential future health issues
E-cigarette Summit: Vaping improves-odds-of-quitting-of-tobacco-smoking/
SA plans new e-cigarette and vaping rules
SA must consider best interests of children in regulating and controlling e-cigarettes