Tanzania: Tobacco Firms Want Guidelines On Labelling

Source from:  Tanzania Daily News 08/01/2012

Guidelines for Tobacco Products Regulatory Act may be formulated in the current financial year, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has said. The move follows reservations in the industry where tobacco firms say there are things they cannot do about labelling, manufacture, sale, promotion, advertising and distribution of tobacco products unless regulations were in place. "We can not change labelling on health caution marks on our cigarette packets now because the regulations are not in place.It's possible that we expand the size of wording on the packets," said a source. A spokesperson for the ministry of health, Mr Nsachris Mwamaja, said the guidelines are intended to regulate the manufacture, sale, labelling, promotion, advertising, distribution and use of tobacco products. The government had planned to increase tobacco production from 58,702 tonnes of the previous financial year to 60,000 in 2011/2011 year and a total of 340 bn/- has been collected as tobacco taxes in the last five years. Mr Mwamaja said there is an elaborate law meant to protect minors and even adults from the effects of passive smoking. He said the law requires that warning signs be printed on each cigarette advertisement, on the sticks and on packets. Tobacco is a major foreign exchange earner. According to the law, cigarettes manufactured in and outside the country will have to adhere to international standards and will have to carry a warning in both English and Kiswahili on the negative effects of cigarette smoking. According to the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) guidelines, effective warning labels on tobacco packaging serve several purposes, including disrupting the marketing value of the packages. The guidelines indicate that since traditional avenues for marketing tobacco products have become increasingly restricted due to wider adoption of bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, the tobacco industry has become increasingly more reliant on cigarette packaging as a primary marketing vehicle. Enditem