[Intl-tobacco] South Africa: Tough Curbs Slash Number of Smokers

[Robert Weissman]

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200309210193.html
Tough Curbs Slash Number of Smokers

Sunday Times (Johannesburg)
NEWS
September 21, 2003
Posted to the web September 21, 2003

By Claire Keeton
Johannesburg

SOUTH Africans are smoking less, with only one in four citizens now
lighting up.

The number of smokers has fallen from one in three South Africans,
according to the Medical Research Council.

Dr Yussuf Saloojee, the executive director of the National Council
Against Smoking, said the statistics provided by the MRC also showed
that the "substantial decrease"
was even evident among teenagers aged 14 to 17 years, with only 18% of
youth puffing in 2000 - down from 23% in 1999.

International studies show that teenagers are increasingly lighting up
in the developing world.

Saloojee said cigarette sales had dropped from 40 billion in 1991 to 25
billion in 2000.

But he said tobacco companies were still making profits as a result of
the steep increase in prices .

A pack of cigarettes costs almost 10 times more today than in 1993 -
when it was R2.50 a pack - and the tax per pack was almost six times
higher.

Saloojee credited the government's anti-smoking policy - which includes
raising taxes and banning people from smoking in public places such as
offices and restaurants -
for the decline in puffing. "Taxes are one of the most effective ways of
reducing consumption," he said.

Health Department spokesman Joanne Collinge confirmed that surveys among
the youth had shown that the number of smokers was dropping.

"This is important because once they start, people don't tend to stop,"
she said.

Collinge said the department believed that a number of policies it had
implemented "might have had an impact".

"Parallel to the drop in smoking is the decline in advertising, and our
policy of taxing these commodities heavily might also be a reason," she
said.

Simon Millson, head of corporate and regulatory affairs at British
American Tobacco , confirmed its sales had dropped "by about a third and
the biggest factor is the
increase in taxes and excise duties, which have gone up by about 600%".
BAT has more than 90% of the South African cigarette market.

Meanwhile, a tablet has replaced patches, gum and sprays as the
favourite stop-smoking elixir of South Africans.

About 30 000 smokers have signed up for the drug Zyban - which was
originally launched as an anti-depressant and is presently classified in
the same category of drugs
as Prozac and Valium.

Zyban was launched in the country in April. Worldwide, about eight
million people are on Zyban, which has proved to be slightly more
successful than other therapies to
quit smoking.

Zyban acts on the pleasure centre of your brain by alleviating
withdrawal symptoms. Smokers wanting to take it must first be evaluated
by a doctor.

In South Africa, a month's course - it is recommended for three months
-- costs about R320, compared to $140 (R1 026) in the US.

Cape Town doctor Laurence Cohen, who quit by using the drug and got
special permission to prescribe it two years ago, said Zyban had a
fantastic success rate.

"I have about 268 people taking it and 91.4% of them have quit, 186 for
more than a year," he said.

He said his patients had smoked an average of 34 cigarettes a day for 36
years, and had tried to give up on average four times prior to taking
the drug.

Cohen said the side-effects were usually sleeplessness, upset stomachs,
headaches and "feeling strange", as the drug is a mood stabiliser.

The drug is not safe for people who have alcoholism problems, bulimia or
epilepsy, and it has not yet been tested on pregnant women.

Elize Skitter of the manufacturer Glaxo-SmithKline warned that the drug
was also "contra-indicated for anyone with head injuries and a lower
threshold for seizures".

Salojee said it was too early to judge Zyban's effectiveness.

"Any therapy almost doubles the chance of quitting and the differences
in their efficacy are very small," he said.