Vaping and tobacco smoking could be banned on restaurant and bar patios in the Canadian city of Winnipeg later this year, according to a number of media reports.
A CBC News story said a report from Winnipeg’s community services department had recommended a ban on the use of cigarettes, cigars, pipes, electronic cigarettes, water pipes, hookahs and ‘similar products/devices’ on outdoor patios where food or drinks were served.
If the City Council approves the ban it will go into force on April 1 and Winnipeg will become the last major city in Canada to outlaw patio smoking.
In a telephone survey of 600 ‘randomly selected’ adults carried out between September 21 and October 10, the city found that 76 percent of people supported a patio smoking ban at restaurants and 58 percent supported a ban at bars.
Community by-law enforcement manager Winston Yee reported to council’s protection and community services committee that a scan of patio smoking bans in other cities had revealed little impact on businesses.
‘Implementation and compliance was achieved primarily through a combination of public and industry education, and providing support to business owners through a transition period,’ he said.
‘Most municipalities reported limited need for enforcement due to general public acceptance and co-operation from business owners.’
Yee said also that all other jurisdictions had created an exemption for the ceremonial Indigenous use of tobacco. And during an interview he indicated that Winnipeg would offer the same exemption.
In addition, bars could continue to allow smoking in outdoor areas on private property where no food or drinks were served, Yee said. But these areas would have to be permanent.
Category: Regulation
Patio tyrants rule in Canada
Keep digging
China has become the fastest-growing tobacco market, according to a story in the Worker’s Daily citing a report by Zheng Rong, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics.
This is despite the recent imposition of anti-tobacco measures, including cigarette-tax rises.
China has imposed too strict bans on tobacco smoking in more than 20 cities, though the campaign has covered less than 10 percent of the whole country.
Cigarette taxes were raised substantially in 2008 and 2015 but they did not cool demand.
Taxes now account for about 59 percent of the retail prices of cigarettes in China, but they lag behind the global average of 75 percent.
In additional, the disposable income of Chinese smokers was said to have grown by about 85 percent from 2001 to 2016, and even to have doubled among consumers of low-price products.
The incidence of smoking in China among low-income groups is higher than the incidence among high-income groups, and rural residents smoke more than do urban people.
Hu Angang, a professor with Tsinghua University, was quoted as saying that ‘the higher incidence of smoking in poverty-stricken areas and poor families is the main cause of poverty reoccurrence due to the treatment of tobacco-related diseases’.
The global experience indicated that raising taxes on tobacco could effectively reduce the use of tobacco and cut public health expenditures, Zheng said; and he called for higher cigarette prices to reduce smoking among low-income smokers.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yuan, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Tobacco Control Office, said raising the tax and price of tobacco products was one way to control smoking.Bigger warnings sought
Most South Koreans think cigarette-pack graphic health warnings should be increased in size, while some believe they should cover the whole pack, according to a story in The Korea Herald citing the results of a poll that sought the opinions of 634 smokers and 866 non-smokers.
Not long ago, when graphic warnings were first suggested, it was said that, culturally, such warnings would not be acceptable in the country.
Currently, graphic warnings cover 50 percent of the two largest faces of packs – the front and the back.
Of the 1,500 people surveyed by the Korea Health Promotion Institute last year, 27.6 percent of adults and 29.2 percent of young people said graphic warnings should be enlarged.
Thirteen-point-one percent of those surveyed said the warnings should cover more than 90 percent of packs, while 17 percent of adults and 17.3 percent of adolescents said the entire pack should be wrapped in images showing the dangers of smoking.
Twenty-four-point-six percent of adults and 17.1 percent of young people supported the current 50 percent warnings.
The poll was said to have found also that people are ‘more impressed’ by pictorial warnings than by warning phrases alone. On a one-to-five scale, graphic warnings were said to have a 3.94 effect while warning phrases had a 2.41 effect.
South Korea’s smoking rate rose to 23.9 percent in 2016 from 22.6 percent in 2015.
The country’s smoking rate among men stood at 31 percent in 2015, the highest among the 15 member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development for which statistics are available.Smoking, vaping banned
A ban prohibiting tobacco smoking in open public spaces such as holiday camps or children’s playgrounds has come into effect in Portugal, according to a story in The Portugal News.
However, smoking is still permitted at sporting venues such as football stadiums.
The law, which also bans the use of electronic cigarettes in enclosed places, was approved by parliament in June.
Up until the end of 2017, people could use e-cigarettes even in hospitals and school classrooms.Singapore out on a limb
New laws due to come into force in Singapore shortly will outlaw electronic cigarettes, making it illegal to use such devices even at home, according to a story in The Straits Times.
Some 18-plus e-cigarette users reportedly told the Times they planned to go back to smoking combustible cigarettes.
Currently, the sale, import and distribution of e-cigarettes are against the law, but there is no law against vapers using e-cigarettes in private places.
But a ban passed in November will make it illegal for people to buy, use and own what were described in the report as ‘imitation tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes, e-cigars and e-pipes’.
The ban is expected to come into force within the next few months.
With the total ban, Singapore will be introducing the toughest stance possible against e-cigarettes, at the same time as neighboring countries are moving towards allowing regulated use of such products.
The Times quoted stories from three regional media outlets.
In January 2017, Malaysia tasked three ministries to regulate e-cigarettes, though the Sultan of Johor has vowed to stamp out vaping in the southern state, according to a Malay Mail Online story.
In Indonesia, only businesses that had been certified by the health ministry and whose products met national standards were allowed to import and sell e-cigarettes, The Jakarta Post reported.
And, according to the Bangkok Post, even Thailand was reconsidering its three-year ban on e-cigarettes.
When the ban was passed in Singapore in November, the Parliamentary Secretary for Health Amrin Amin said the measures were meant to “de-normalize” the use of tobacco products over time and deny youth access to cigarettes. The Health Ministry considers e-cigarettes gateway products to cigarette use.Two-phase warning increase
Pakistan’s Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) and Regulations has issued an order requiring an increase in the size of cigarette-pack graphic warnings, according to a story in The Nation.
Currently 40 percent, the warnings will be increased to 50 percent of the front and back of cigarette packs from June 1 this year, and to 60 percent by June 2019.
The director general of the NHS Dr. Asad Hafeez said that tobacco companies were being given time to sell already-manufactured stock before the new rule was implemented.
But he warned that companies would be fined if they violated the order.
Hafeez said also that Pakistan was a signatory to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control under which pictorial warnings on cigarette packs could be increased to 80 percent.Local buying ‘encouraged’
Indonesia is planning to make the import of unmanufactured tobacco costlier than it has been to date, and to make it conditional on the importer’s buying local tobacco, according to a story in Indonesia Investments.
The country’s Co-ordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Darmin Nasution, has confirmed that the government plans in 2018 to raise the import tariff on unmanufactured tobacco from its current level of five percent, though it is not known what the new rate will be.
Besides the higher import tariff, a number of new rules are being formulated that, in part, will require ‘importers/distribution centers’ to absorb a certain amount of locally-produced tobacco. Only those importers that obtain a recommendation letter from the Agriculture Ministry will be able to import tobacco, and this letter will be issued only to those companies that purchase ‘enough’ tobacco from local producers.
These regulations are reportedly aimed at improving the welfare of Indonesian tobacco producers and raising government revenues.
Currently, with a five percent import duty in place, Indonesian cigarette manufacturers are said not to be ‘encouraged’ to absorb locally-produced tobacco.
Based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the value of unmanufactured-tobacco imports into Indonesia during January-July 2017 was US$318.49 million, up 16.11 percent from that of the equivalent period of 2016.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s cigarette production is thought to have risen to about 360 billion in 2017, from 342 billion during 2016.
Puffing along in China
In China, a passenger is suing a local railway authority for allowing passengers to smoke on trains, according to a story in the China Daily.
The Beijing Railway Transport Court held a hearing on Wednesday in respect of a case brought by a female passenger surnamed Li against the Harbin Railway Bureau (HRB).
While traveling on June 9 from Beijing to Tianjin on train K1301 operated by HRB Li noticed ‘lots of passengers’ smoking between two carriages, though the company’s ‘safety tips’ state that smoking is banned everywhere on the train.
After filing a series of complaints that generated no useful response, Li decided to sue, demanding compensation for her ticket, valued at 102.5 yuan ($13), her legal expenses, and 1 yuan as compensation for her mental suffering.
She demanded also that the HRB issue a smoking ban on train K1301, which is not a high-speed train, and on the platforms at Beijing and Tianjin stations, and the removal of smoking areas and ashtrays.
In court, the defendant argued that the case was a dispute of transportation contract in name only and was essentially a public interest lawsuit. It demanded the court dismiss Li’s request since her claim did not meet the conditions in either case.
HRB said it believed it had fulfilled its contract obligations as the passenger was transported to her destination safely. Setting up smoking areas and ashtrays was a humane management measure rather than a violation of law.
“The complete ban of smoking on regular trains that often take 30 hours to finish a journey is unrealistic,” according to an HRB agent. “Otherwise some people would smoke in the carriages, which is much more dangerous.”
Shisha smoking banned
Kenya has banned shisha smoking and related activities, according to a story in The Daily Nation.
The ban reportedly emanated from the Ministry of Health and was the subject of a gazette notice that said: ‘No person shall import, manufacture, sell, offer for sale, use, advertise, promote, facilitate or encourage shisha smoking in Kenya’.
Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu warned that anyone found contravening the shisha rules would be “liable to a fine not exceeding Sh50, 000, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both”.
If the contravention or default is of a continuing nature, a further fine not exceeding Sh1,000 for each day it continues will be imposed.
The ban was said to have made Kenya the third East African country after Tanzania and Rwanda to ban shisha smoking.
Thailand faces vapor issues
Having banned electronic cigarettes, Thailand now has to decide on what it is to do with heat-not-burn products, according to a story on nationmultimedia.com
A recent petition sought a review of the ban on the import and local sale of e-cigarettes but the Public Health Ministry’s Disease Control Department has insisted that these products are hazardous to health and should not be used as a means to quit smoking.
According to another local report, which was published last week, Dr. Assadang Ruay-archin, deputy director-general of the department, who is also the department’s spokesman, described as untrue a story that the Public Health Ministry had distorted the findings of an analysis of the safety risks of e-cigarette use associated with toxic substances and heavy metals.
The Disease Control Department insisted that e-cigarettes were hazardous to health because people who used them could be exposed to nicotine, the addictive substance contained in combustible cigarettes.
Meanwhile, other local media reports have questioned whether Philip Morris International’s heated-tobacco product is an e-cigarette, but the company has moved to put clear water between the two products.
Philip Morris Thailand’s managing director, Gerald Margolis, said on Friday that his company’s product heated tobacco rather than burning it.
‘This is different from e-cigarettes, which generate nicotine-containing aerosols by heating a liquid without using tobacco leaves,’ he said in a press release.
He said that many smokers found it difficult to quit, so it was ‘important’ for them to have access to less harmful alternatives.
In December 2016, PMI submitted a Modified Risk Tobacco Product application to the US Food and Drug Administration and it was accepted, triggering a scientific review at the agency’s Center for Tobacco Products.
Britain’s Committee on Toxicity recently issued a press release describing the core findings of a review on heated tobacco products. It concluded that, while still harmful to health, the consumption of heated-tobacco products was likely to be less risky than smoking conventional cigarettes.
