Tag: smoking

  • Fiji running out of places for smokers to smoke

    Smoking in Fiji restaurants will be illegal as of July 1st, and a $1,000 fine will be carried if any one business breaches the new law, which was implemented under the Tobacco Control Regulation of 2012. Graphical warnings on cigarette packets will also be printed as of July, according to a story by the Fiji Broadcasting Company.

    British American Tobacco corporate manager Rajeshwar Singh says the law has serious implications on their business.

    “It has implications on our business because there is no exemption we have to comply, and in order to comply we need to change the packaging label of the product, and as a result of that, there is cost associated to that.”

    Also under the Tobacco Control Regulations 2012 – any workplace where the public has access also becomes a no-smoking area. This includes stairways, passageways, entrances and the foyer.

    Bus stations, Internet shops and even water transports – meaning boats also are smoke-free zones starting in July.

  • Tobacco firms may face health care lawsuits by Korea’s national insurer

    Korea’s state-run National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) is considering filing lawsuits against cigarette companies to seek compensation for rising health care costs from smoking-related illnesses, according to a story in The Korea Herald.

    NHIS’ president Kim Jong-dae, said that tobacco companies should no longer be free of responsibility for smoking-related diseases that cost massive amounts of money to treat every year.

    He was not quoted as having explained why he thought this was the case but he did say the NHIS would hold a forum with lawyers next week to study how much the treatment of tobacco-related illnesses costs its fund and to check whether tobacco litigation would be valid.

    This would be the first time that a Korean public body had sued local and foreign tobacco companies over health care costs.

    In 2011, the NHIS was said to have spent WON1.56 trillion on treating smoking-related diseases.

    The Herald story quoted unnamed legal experts as saying litigation could involve trillions of won because the NHIS could claim for recovery of their tobacco-related health care costs for the past 10 years.