In April, the United Kingdom Parliament had a second reading (the general debate on all aspects of the bill) of the tobacco and vapes bill. After passing that stage, the bill moves to Committee stage where it will undergo line by line scrutiny.
Among other things, the bill seeks to ban advertising and sponsorship, implement regulations concerning vaping flavours, descriptions, ingredients, packaging and point-of-sale displays of tobacco and vaping products. The government argues that the bill is necessary to protect future generations from the dangers of smoking and vaping.
The developments in the UK somewhat mirror what is currently unfolding in South Africa. After concluding public hearings in all nine provinces early this year, Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health has commenced with oral hearings on the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill, which was first introduced in Parliament in December 2022. The bill proposes several measures for the control of smoking and vaping, including banning the advertising of vaping products, banning sponsorship, banning point of sale displays, introducing graphic health warnings, banning indoor smoking and vaping and introducing regulations on flavours.
While it may seem that the UK is moving away from its historically permissive stance on vaping, the UK government has reaffirmed its scientifically grounded belief that vaping is less harmful than smoking. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care, Baroness Merron, has stated that evidence has shown that clients of stop smoking services who have used a vape to quit have had the highest success rate of any group.
The position of the UK is radically different from that of the South African government, which continues to maintain the scientifically untenable position that tobacco harm reduction is a ruse by the tobacco industry to create a new generation of smokers and perpetuate nicotine addiction. As a result, the Department of Health has come up with a draconian law that will effectively make vaping undesirable to adult smokers.
Support for smokers
A close reading of the South African Bill reveals a government that appears to be dripping with disdain for smokers. While the Bill proselytises about the dangers of smoking, none of its proposed measures are tailored to assist the 12.7 million South African smokers kick their nicotine addiction. Despite every reason to do so, the South African government does not seem to care one bit about those already addicted to nicotine who pose the greatest risk to the country’s public health system. What supposed concern has been shown is through misguided attempts at shaming smokers and browbeating the legal industry, completely ignoring the fact about 60% of the tobacco industry exists outside the legal net. Thus, legislation aimed at only 40% of the market is unlikely to achieve any noticeable impact, especially given that the legal industry is already compliant with the Tobacco Products Control Act (83) 1993.
Despite years of recognising that Non-Communicable Diseases pose the greatest risk to South Africa’s health system, government has not put in place any measures to support smokers quit smoking, save for a quit smoking hotline run by the National Council Against Smoking.
South Africa should take heed from the UK, which recognises smokers as citizens who need attention too. The UK government is increasing funding for local stop smoking services by an additional £70 million in 2025-26 for the national smoke-free pregnancy incentives scheme and the vaping Swap to Stop scheme.
Protecting the Youth
The increase in youth uptake of vaping is concerning and should rightly be tackled head on. However, this should be done based on facts, not intuition or vindictiveness. For instance, the argument that banning flavours would discourage youth uptake is mischievous and ignores the reality that adult smokers who switch to vaping very much appreciate the different taste profiles available in vapes. The argument also ignores the fact that young people are naturally more adventurous and risk prone than adults, and as such, will vape, not because vapes taste good, but because they look cool. How else can one explain the fact that most smokers initiate smoking in their youth? A report published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse found that there are “no associations” between state-level tobacco and flavour restrictions and smoking and vaping rates. Furthermore, another study published in the Journal of American Medical Association found that flavoured vapes, including fruit and sweet options, are more effective at reducing smoking than traditional tobacco flavour.
The focus on flavours also entirely disregards the body of emerging evidence which shows that young people vape due to peer pressure and to manage their social stress. It ignores anecdotal evidence about parents offering their children vape to reduce their exposure to the harms of smoking. Regrettably, it ignores the clear and present danger posed by the fact that the vast majority of kids addicted to nicotine smoke, are socio-economically disadvantaged, and to the extent that they may vape, they may be using counterfeit products sold by unscrupulous illicit trade players.
As an industry, we fully agree with the Department of Health about the need to ensure that vaping packaging does not depict cartoons and other child-friendly attributes. It is for this reason that our association is a member of the Advertising Regulatory Board, which has set out an industry Code of Conduct that prohibits this kind of packaging and other potentially misleading representations of vaping products. While not a panacea, this is a first, earnest step towards limiting the attractiveness of vaping for young people.
A concerted multi-stakeholder effort is needed to prevent young people from vaping. The Vapour Products Association of South Africa (VPASA), on its side, has for 4 years now been running a Youth Access Prevention (YAP) campaign to safeguard young people from vaping. The campaign entails working closely with our members and other stakeholders to ensure that vaping products are not sold to young people and promoting responsible marketing and packaging of the products.
It is important to note that, while VPASA serves as the representative body for a significant portion of the vapour products industry, we do not represent all market participants. As a result, we are unable to enforce the measures outlined above on non-member entities.
Striking a Balance
We understand that government is often caught between the need to balance personal freedoms and health gains, but we also need the balance of probabilities around human behaviour. There is ample evidence from the history of tobacco and alcohol that bans only give rise to black markets and criminal networks and often achieve the opposite.
Thus, legislation seeking to regulate vaping must strike a necessary balance, ensuring that alternatives to smoking are accessible to adult smokers looking to transition away from tobacco dependence, while clamping down on youth vaping.
