Smokeless tobacco banned

Press, 6 January 1987, Page 4

Smokeless tobacco banned

Wellington reporter

Smokeless tobacco, both for sucking and chewing, will be banned from the New Zealand market.

This decision by the Minister of Health, Dr Bassett, comes after the publication of a report by Dr Murray Laugeson, the Health Department’s principal officer for health promotion.

Dr Bassett said that consumption of tobacco in this way overseas had proved most harmful.

The ban would come into effect during January.

“It is yet to become a runaway craze here and should not be allowed to,” he said. “There has been found to be a high number of mouth cancers among United States teenagers who consume tobacco in this form."

Advertising, sale, and importation of tobacco for chewing or any other oral use was banned under new regulations through the Toxic Substances Act. The proposed ban would put New Zealand among the leading countries in controlling the spread of smokeless tobacco, Dr Bassett

said. Earlier this year the World Health Organisation had published the results of studies in a number of countries which showed that holding tobacco in the mouth increased the chances of cancer. As New Zealand was getting inquiries from overseas firms wanting to market the product here, it had been necessary to move quickly to block such marketeers from popularising “this nasty habit” through advertising aimed at young people. New Zealand already had 3600 tobacco-related

deaths a year and there was no need to add to that tragic total by allowing another form of tobacco consumption to become established.

The Cancer Society, Action on Smoking and Health, the Health Department and dental authorities all backed the ban on smokeless tobacco, Dr Bassett said.

Dr Laugeson said that more than 20,000 New Zealand smokers had died of lung cancer since the Surgeon-General had first reported in 1964 that smoking caused this disease.

Now there was further and compelling evidence to show that smokers also put at risk those closest to them when they smoked.

He said the Toxic Substances Board would meet early in the new year to decide whether to recommend a ban on smoking in enclosed premises.

Dr Bassett said the Government would look favourably at board recommendations for a ban on the sale of smoking tobacco to children, a ban on the advertising of smoking tobacco, and stronger warnings on all tobacco product packets.