THE City of Cape Town says it will escalate its efforts this year for legislative clarity on the wide range of alternative smoking devices and habits that have become commonplace in South Africa, including the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes).
Business Day, 14 January 2015
City Health recently solicited legal opinion from the Department of Health about the use of e-cigarettes. Cape Town said this continued to be a grey area, not only in South Africa but around the globe. The use of e-cigarettes is not provided for in the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act.
Cape Town mayoral committee member for health Benedicta van Minnen said the city would engage with the Health Minister on the use of e-cigarettes and hookah pipes (or hubbly bubblies as the devices are commonly known) to push for legal clarity. Department of Health spokesman Joe Maila said the department was considering amendments to include e-cigarettes in the legislation. A recent laboratory study published by open access peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS One found that vapour from e-cigarettes may increase young people's risk of respiratory infections, whether or not it contains nicotine.
According to the World Health Organisation, the e-cigarette industry has grown since 2005 from one manufacturer in China to a worldwide business worth close to $3bn with about 500 different brands. Van Minnen said that ongoing research into hookah pipes indicated that they were decidedly more dangerous than societal attitudes suggested. The most recent study in the US found that 39 percent of teenagers and young adults who had previously smoked hookah pipes went on to smoke cigarettes.
She said hookah pipes were very popular in Cape Town, not just among adults, but also children because there is a perception that the flavoured tobacco is somehow not harmful.
We need to be more mindful as a society about the burden we are placing on the healthcare system, Van Minnen added.
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