Bermuda to meet International Obligations via Tobacco Control Act 2015

The Tobacco Control Bill 2015 implements obligations to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The overall intent of the Convention is to reduce demand for tobacco products because their use is the leading preventable cause of premature death in the world. In the last decade international controls of these known carcinogens have escalated, and the intent of the Tobacco Control Act 2015 is to update Bermuda’s tobacco control laws.
The Minister of Health, Seniors and Health, the Hon. Jeanne Atherden JP, MP said: “Bermuda is years behind other jurisdictions regarding the implementation of these obligations and is not as aggressive as other jurisdictions. Those jurisdictions are already on the third/fourth amendments to their tobacco control laws since the FCTC- this is only Bermuda’s second amendment.”
The Minister continued: “For example: Trinidad and Tobago has regulations (2010) regarding cigarette packaging that include graphic pictures about the harm of cigarette smoking – the Tobacco Control Act 2015 contains provisions regarding health warning labels only. Other jurisdictions with graphic pictures include Canada, the UK and Australia”.
The Minister said the Bill may seem aggressive to the tobacco industry because it provides more detailed regulation than the 1987 Act and the 2005 Act amendments, but it doesn’t go as far as other jurisdictions on the regulations of tobacco sale and use.
“The Government has an obligation when a convention is extended to Bermuda by the UK to implement laws that are compliant with that Convention- this Bill satisfies most, but not all, of those obligations.” The Ministry of Health, Seniors and Environment is advising the public that the Tobacco Control Act 2015 as proposed will prohibit the sale of flavoured tobacco products in Bermuda.
The Minister said: “Bermuda is not isolated in its thinking about flavoured tobacco. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now examining options for federally regulating flavored tobacco as well. In 2009 the US Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, prohibited the sale of cigarettes containing any characterizing flavors.”
The following extract from a 2014 FDA document shows a similar policy intent with the Tobacco Control Act 2015 which is intended to protect children and young people from the hazards of smoking:
“Young adults often mistakenly think non-cigarette tobacco products are safe alternatives to cigarettes. Research has shown that youth are also particularly vulnerable to the appeal of novel tobacco products. Because of their addictiveness and the marketing and sale of these products (and their subsequent use by youth), some non-cigarette tobacco products can introduce youth into a lifetime of addicted tobacco product use and related harms, including premature death.
The first nationally representative study (derived from more than 4,000 young adults aged 18 to 34) to examine the prevalence of the use of flavored tobacco products following the 2009 FDA flavor ban in cigarettes found that 20 percent of tobacco users in the study currently use a flavored tobacco product. The most common flavored products include flavored pipe tobacco, little cigars, and hookah tobacco. Research has shown that flavored product use is higher among 18-to-24-year-olds than 25-to-34-year-olds, and that sugar preference is strongest among youth and young adults and declines with age. Such findings indicate that flavored product use may influence tobacco-use patterns in young adulthood, a critical period when lifelong patterns of tobacco use are often established.”
The Report of the Survey of Students on Knowledge and Attitudes of Drugs and Health 2012 by the Department of National Drug Control (NDC) stated that children in Bermuda first start using cigarettes at 8 years old. Respondents in the 2007 Youth Tobacco Survey stated that no one had refused to sell them cigarettes because of age. Cigarettes can be purchased individually or in small packages in local stores making them more affordable for children. Furthermore, there is no age restriction on the sale of cigarette rolling papers. Cigarette advertising is featured at points of sale in local retail establishments, sometimes in close proximity to displays of children’s toys. Middle and high school survey participants reported that cigarettes were being offered locally as a promotion for them to try, and that they were in possession of cigarette branded tee shirts, pens, and backpacks.
The Tobacco Control Act 2015 is intended to make smoking less available and attractive to children. (BM GIS)