Category: Regulation

Smoking ban challenged
A lawsuit being brought by a smokers’-rights group in Malaysia against a nationwide ban on tobacco smoking in public places has left some people, including some tobacco consumers, asking whether smoking is a protected right, according to a story by Yiswaree Palansamy for the Malay Mail.
Ahead of the court case, several lawyers reportedly told the Mail that the Federal Constitution did not protect the right to smoke in public, and that a ban could not be deemed unconstitutional because it was in the interests of public health.
“This is a very bizarre lawsuit,” lawyers for Liberty executive director Latheefa Koya were said to have told the Mail.
“There is no such guarantee, whether express or implied, of the right to smoke in public places in the Federal Constitution.
“There is also no right under the Constitution that allows individuals to pollute the air with cigarette smoke. It is impossible to understand how the ban can be unconstitutional.”
Latheefa added that the prospect of the group’s winning its case was low.
“Their argument that smokers will be isolated is absurd – because they can still visit and eat at all public eating places so long as they don’t smoke,” she said.
“Furthermore, it is the duty of the government to ensure that members of the public are protected from the harmful pollutants in cigarette smoke.
“The pernicious effects of second-hand smoke are scientifically well documented.”
Meanwhile, the civil liberties lawyer Syahredzan Johan said the group could argue that the ban was a breach of fundamental rights, but he was unconvinced by this argument.
“It is a weak argument because in the first place, there is no fundamental right to smoke,” he said.
Despite that, the political secretary to DAP [Democratic Action Party] MP Lim Kit Siang said the group was left with one recourse on which to base its legal challenge – irrationality.
“It goes back to whether it is reasonable or not,” said Syahredzan. “That’s the only leg that they can stand on: where there is a concept of irrationality.
“When you’re seeking a judicial review, that is the usual ground that you rely on – things like procedural impropriety.”
January 7, 2019
Bans now in the running
The Japanese athlete, Naoko Takahashi, who won the gold medal in the women’s marathon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, has been appointed as an ambassador to promote a Tokyo ordinance aimed at preventing passive tobacco smoking, according to a Maiinichi Daily News story.
Japan has struggled to bring in public-places tobacco smoking regulations and most of the efforts to do so have centered on a perceived need to enact such legislation before the Tokyo Olympics, which are due to run from July 24 to August 9, 2020.
Tokyo’s ordinance, which partially came into force at the start of this month, asks smokers to pay attention to what they are doing to prevent those around them from being exposed to second-hand smoke.
At the same time, parents and guardians are urged to try to protect children from passive smoking.
Later this year, smoking will be prohibited on the premises of schools, hospitals and other public facilities in Tokyo.
The story said that, on April 1, 2020, all aspects of the ordinance were scheduled to become effective so that smoking at restaurants that hire employees would be ‘basically banned’.
Takahashi received a letter of appointment to her ambassadorial role from Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.
January 7, 2019
EU system on right track
The EU Commission has said that the EU traceability system for tobacco products is fully compliant with the World Health Organization’s Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (Protocol).
The Commission was replying to two questions posed by the Romanian member of the EU Parliament, Cristian-Silviu Buşoi.
In a preamble to his questions, Buşoi said that during the eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (COP8) and the first meeting of the parties to the Protocol (MOP1) held in Geneva in October 2018, WHO Spokesperson Dr. Stella Bialou had justified the non-compliance of the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) in respect of tobacco tracking and tracing because the adoption of the TPD had preceded the ratification of the Protocol.
‘Moreover, on 9 June 2016, Parliament voted to ratify the Protocol and all member states voted in favour in the Council, leading to its official ratification by the EU on the 24 June 2016,’ he said, before asking:
1. ‘How and when will the Commission remedy this discrepancy, now that the Protocol has been ratified by the EU?
2. ‘How is the Commission addressing the situation of the remaining 15 member states that have not ratified the WHO Protocol individually?’
In reply to the first question, the Commission said that the EU traceability system for tobacco products established under the TPD was fully compliant with the Protocol established under the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
‘The EU was involved in negotiating the FCTC Protocol, adopted in 2012,’ the Commission said. ‘The FCTC Protocol (in particular Article 8) was taken into account when the EU adopted its system in 2014. The EU system, which will be in place by 20 May 2019, is based on Article 15 TPD and complemented by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/574 and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/573 adopted in December 2017, which following the positive scrutiny of the latter act by the co-legislators entered into force on 6 May 2018.
‘Member states’ competent authorities and the Commission exercise full control over this system. Several measures ensure the full compliance with the FCTC Protocol, notably: independent generation of unique identifiers, independent storage of traceability data with real time visibility for enforcement purposes, as well as high density and standardisation of reporting events in terms of time and content. The Commission sees no reason to introduce any changes to the design of the EU system.’
In answer to the second question, the Commission said that member states had unanimously supported the ratification of the Protocol by the EU, for matters falling under EU competence.
‘As for matters falling under national competence, to date 11 member states have ratified the Protocol,’ it said. ‘There are national procedures ongoing in the remaining member states. The Commission regularly organises meetings with national experts to support the member states in ratifying and implementing the Protocol.’
January 4, 2019
Metal detection
Metals linked to cancer are present in higher levels in medwakh and shisha products than in cigarettes, according to a story at thenational.ae citing a new UAE study.
Scientists in Sharjah and Abu Dhabi were said to have found that, in comparisons to cigarettes, both medwakh and shisha tobacco contain more nickel, chromium, copper and zinc.
The research follows a study earlier this year reporting much higher levels of nicotine and tar being delivered by medwakh than by cigarettes.
The researchers said this put smokers at risk of developing a range of serious medical problems, including lung cancer and coronary artery disease.
“Traditional medwakh and shisha pipes have no filters, so toxic metals can quickly enter the lungs, causing different diseases, such as lung and oral cancers, oral infections and cardiovascular diseases,” said Ayesha Mohammed, a chemistry lecturer at the University of Sharjah and the lead author of the study.
“I would never recommend dokha [medwakh] and shisha smoking because both don’t have filters, so trace elements can easily enter the human body compared to cigarettes and cause several cancers.
“Medwakh smoking is a loaded pistol and time will pull the trigger.”
Published in Oxford University Press’s Journal of Analytical Toxicology, the latest study looked at 13 medwakh tobacco products and three shisha products, analysing their properties to determine metal concentrations.
The levels were then compared with cigarette tobacco to establish which was more likely to pose health risks.
January 3, 2019
Healthy gambling
Under a revised law that came into effect on Tuesday, all smoking lounges in Macau casinos must conform to enhanced technical standards and be approved by the authorities, according to a story in GGRAsia, a website and newsletter about the Asian sector of the casino industry.
The city’s Health Bureau said that, as of yesterday, it had received 498 requests for installing the new higher-standard lounges, which are said to have better air extraction equipment than was required under the previous regulatory regime.
And it said that, as of Monday, it had given permission for the installation of 378 of the new-style smoking lounges.
Also as of Monday, 13 gaming venues had made no request for new-style smoking lounges.
Meanwhile, a December report on the casino sector outlook for Macau by brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein said the new smoking rules, which include a ban on tableside smoking in VIP gambling rooms, were ‘likely a headwind for the industry’. But the report’s authors added that any negative impact from the smoking ban would ‘likely be temporary’.
Macau’s Legislative Assembly passed on July 14, 2017, a revised bill on smoking that banned tableside tobacco use in VIP rooms, which, up till then were the only places in Macau casinos where smoking was still allowed at gaming tables.
Although the new rules came into force on January 1, 2018, tableside smoking at VIP rooms was in effect permitted until January 1, 2019, because casinos had been given a year’s grace in which to set up smoking lounges for VIP players.
On the first two days of the new law being in effect, Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau and the city’s Health Bureau jointly announced that 14 charges had been filed in relation to people smoking outside authorized areas in the city’s casinos. Nine charges related to visitors and five charges were against locals.
The Tobacco Prevention and Control Office additionally received 23 complaints about smoking in casinos, via the city’s anti-smoking hotline.
January 3, 2019
Nicotine ban
Malaysia’s Health Minister Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad has issued a reminder that the smoking ban at the country’s eateries also covers the use of nicotine-containing vaping devices and shishas, according to a story in The Malaysian Insight.
Any product containing nicotine is classified as a tobacco product.
“It is not only cigarettes that are considered tobacco products, but anything that contains nicotine,” the Minister told a press conference in Putrajaya yesterday.
The smoking and vaping ban at eateries came into effect on January 1.
The Health Ministry intends to use the first six months of the ban to ‘educate’ smokers and vapers about the new regulations.
After that, individuals who are found to have broken the rules will be liable to fine of RM10,000, while the proprietors of eateries where smoking or vaping is found to have taken place will be liable to a fine of RM2,500.
January 3, 2019
Nation-wide ban sought
Anti-tobacco campaigners in China have renewed calls for a national ban on smoking in public places, according to a story by Wang Xiaoyu for the China Daily.
The Beijing-based Thinktank Research Center for Health Development (TRCHD), which lobbies for tougher tobacco control measures, called last week for the creation of a smoke-free environment for the public.
The latest draft of a basic medical care and health promotion law, which was published in October and is under review by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, highlights the need for publicity campaigns to curb smoking and higher taxes on tobacco products.
Kelvin Khow, a technical officer for the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative, said the new draft was encouraging, “but regarding smoke-free public places, we need stronger wording – to ban smoking in all indoor areas”.
The draft, he said, used less-specific phrases such as “control smoking in public places”.
Khow said nearly 90 percent of Chinese people were not protected by smoke-free laws, making them vulnerable to health risks from second-hand smoke.
“We’re hurting people by not acting on a national law,” he said.
Twenty-one Chinese cities have banned smoking in indoor public spaces, with the latest being Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi province, in November.
Zhangjiakou, co-host of the 2022 Winter Olympics, is expected to join them soon. It released a draft regulation in September.
Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the TRCHD, said tobacco companies were hindering the launch of a nationwide ban.
“At the very least, we should stop advertising and sponsorship by tobacco businesses and introduce larger graphic warnings on all tobacco products,” she said. “A healthy China must be smoke free.”
January 2, 2019
Setting boundaries
South Korea’s health ministry said yesterday that tobacco smoking near day-care centers and kindergartens would be banned starting this week, according to a Yonhap News Agency story.
So, as of today, smoking within 10 meters of the country’s 390,000 day-care centers and 9,000 kindergartens will be prohibited.
Provincial governments have been ordered to notify smokers of the new regulations by putting up signs around these facilities.
The ministry said it would allow a grace period through March 30 to give people time to adjust to the changes.
Those who are found to have broken the law will be liable to a fine of 100,000 won (US$89), presumably only after March 30.
Meanwhile, tougher regulations will be applied also to ‘smoking cafés’, where people have previously been allowed to smoke because the facilities have been registered as vending-machine outlets rather than cafés.
Under the new regulations, such facilities will be designated smoke-free starting in 2019.
The owners must notify customers that their facilities are smoke-free zones, though the owners will be allowed to install rooms with separate ventilation systems if they want still to attract smoking customers.
Again, the ministry said it would allow a period of grace until March 30 to give more time for people to make the necessary changes.
December 31, 2018
Flights of fancy
Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport is closing all the tobacco smoking rooms in its domestic and international terminals starting from tomorrow, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.
The airport terminals have been designated non-smoking areas under new smoking control regulations brought in by the city of Hangzhou, the capital of China’s Zhejiang Province.
At the same time, the airport is setting up new smoking areas outside the terminals.
Meanwhile, the news agency reported that the airport is being expanded as part of a project that will make it the second largest aviation hub in the Yangtze river delta region, after Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
December 31, 2018
Visitor warnings
The Japanese Finance Ministry plans to expand the size of health warnings on cigarette packs, according to a story in The Japan Times quoting ‘sources with knowledge of the matter’.
The Ministry reportedly plans to implement the change before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
The move was said to be designed to increase people’s awareness of the health hazards related to smoking.
And it was said, without explanation, that the move ‘takes into consideration visitors to Japan’.
Currently, cigarette manufacturers are obliged to display health warnings on both the front and the back of cigarette packages, covering 30 percent or more of each surface.
But the Ministry plans to increase the coverage to 50 percent or more.
And it plans also to make the health warnings easier to comprehend by adding extra information, such as that relating to recent medical findings.
Meanwhile, the Ministry intends to create a new mandatory warning for heat-not-burn tobacco products.
December 31, 2018