Tobacco Industry Ready to Fight if New Bill is Rushed

Source from:  dispatch.co.za 2008/03/12 03/13/2008

THE tobacco industry has warned it may take to the courts if new tobacco control legislation is pushed through without proper consultation. "There is no need to rush this Bill," chief executive of the Tobacco Industry of SA, Francois van der Merwe, said yesterday following a meeting of Parliament's health portfolio committee. The committee had received a briefing on the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill, which seeks to crack down on advertising and sponsorship, improve warnings on packaging, raise the minimum age for tobacco sales to 18, and ban sales near schools. "If this Bill process continues as planned, the industry will have no choice but to exhaust all avenues to demonstrate how legislation should not be approached," Van der Merwe said. He said the Department of Health placed an advertisement in the Sunday Times on March 9, calling for written submissions by March 20, followed by public hearings on March 25 and 26. The Bill, Van der Merwe said, was available at the Government Printer only on March 10, which made a mockery of democratic principles and wasted MPs' time. A claim by the department that there had been consultation with the industry was a "blatant effort to mislead the committee, and paint a picture which is not true". Enditem