The document summarizes South Africa's new law requiring plain packaging and graphic health warnings for tobacco products. The law aims to reduce the appeal of tobacco, restrict advertising, and limit misleading labels. It also bans tobacco sales to anyone under 18. Tobacco products contain over 1,400 toxic chemicals including arsenic, carbon monoxide, and ammonia. Secondhand smoke is also harmful, containing higher levels of toxins than directly inhaled smoke. All forms of tobacco, including e-cigarettes and smokeless varieties, pose health risks. The document encourages quitting smoking and provides timelines of health benefits from doing so.

2. Get ready for plain packaging
The country is enforcing a new law which will
force tobacco products to have plain
packaging and graphic warning signs.
Plain packaging is an important demand
reduction measure:
• It reduces the attractiveness of tobacco
products,
• Restricts the use of tobacco packaging to
be used as a form of advertising and
• Limits misleading packaging and labelling.
And the use of graphic (pictorial) package
warnings will depict the serious implications
of tobacco use.

3. Did you know?
• Tobacco-related diseases kill over 44 000
South Africans and nearly 6 million people
worldwide annually, that is, one person every
six seconds which amounts to 1:10 persons in
the world.
• 600 000 non-smokers are killed every year by
being exposed to second-hand smoke
• Tobacco use increases the risk of cancer of
the lungs, oesophagus, mouth, bladder,
pancreas, kidney, stomach, prostate, cervix
and breast
No under 18-year old is allowed to
buy tobacco products
The law states that no person shall sell or
supply any tobacco product to any person
under the age of 18 years

4. What is really in cigarettes?
Tobacco and second-hand smoke contain over 1 400 dangerous and harmful
chemicals and 81 cancer causing chemicals have so far been identified in cigarettes
[according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)].
Some of these are:
• Acetone – paint stripper
• Ammonia – toilet cleaner
• Arsenic – rat poison
• Butane – lighter fluid
• Carbon monoxide – exhaust fumes
• Naphthalene – mothballs
• Phenol – disinfectant

5. What is really in hubbly-bubbly?
Waterpipe smoke contains over 300 dangerous and harmful chemicals, and 27
cancer causing chemicals have so far been identified in hookah.
Some of these are:
• Arsenic
• Carbon monoxide
• Formaldehyde
• Lead
• Nicotine
• Tar

6. The dangers of second-hand smoke
Second-hand smoke is harmful
• Second-hand smoke contains twice as much
tar and nicotine per unit volume as does
smoke inhaled from a cigarette.
• Has 3x as much cancer-causing benzopyrene,
• 5x as much carbon monoxide,
• and 50x as much ammonia.
• Second-hand smoke from pipes and cigars is
equally as harmful.
• Causes lung cancer and contributes to the
development of heart disease
SECOND
HAND SMOKE
it’s just as bad
Whatever you smoke,
whether it’s a hookah,
pipes, cigarettes or
cigars, you are
exposing those
around you to the
same toxins that you
are inhaling. You need
to keep the health of
others top of mind.

7. What you should know
All forms of tobacco is dangerous!
Cigarettes are not the only dangerous form of
smoking. Hubbly bubbly, e-cigarettes and
smokeless tobacco (such as snuff, chewing-
tobacco and ‘snus’) is also harmful to your body

8. Other forms of smoking…
Smokeless tobacco
• Smokeless tobacco products includes snuff, chewing-tobacco and ‘snus’. These
products also increase the risk of cancer, especially head and neck cancers
Electronic cigarettes
• E-cigarettes may contain nicotine and
other harmful chemicals
• E-cigarettes are controlled by the South
Africa Health Product Regulatory Agency
and is available only by prescription in
a pharmacy*
* Currently, this law is not being enforced and as a national watchdog, CANSA is lobbying for it to be upheld

9. Other forms of smoking…
Hookah / hubbly bubbly
• Hookah (and cigarette smoke) both
contain poisons, including nicotine, tar,
carbon monoxide, arsenic, and lead
• Arsenic is used as a rat poison, and
carbon monoxide is a deadly gas also
found in motor car exhaust
• Even in small amounts, lead can make
children hyperactive, irritable and cause
brain damage
• The water in the hookah DOES NOT filter
out the toxic ingredients in the tobacco
smoke

10. ‘A number of studies with adult smokers point to
plain packaging fulfilling its core aims of reducing
appeal, particularly among young adults, and
increasing warning salience. In a cross-sectional
tracking survey of cigarette smokers, plain
packaging was associated with increased thinking
about quitting and quit attempts. In addition,
dislike of the pack, lower satisfaction from
cigarettes and attributing motivation to quit to
the warnings predicted daily thoughts of quitting.’
According to a recent paper published by Professor Gerard
Hastings, a prominent tobacco control researcher

11. Time to Kick Butt
CANSA’s eKick Butt programme – an unique
online smoking cessation programme. Through a
series of emails, surveys and downloads, it guides
you and mentors quitting smoking and non-
smoking becomes a lifelong habit, not merely the
time interval between two cigarettes. This
programme supplies a series of handy tools –
tried and tested – to help one quit for good.
www.ekickbutt.org.za

12. Imagine a healthier you?
Quitting tobacco can have a positive effect on
your health and lifestyle:
• Reducing the cancer risk
• Lower heart rate and blood pressure
• Breathing better
• Being able to walk without shortness
of breath
• Living a longer and healthier life
• Having more physical energy
• Being a good role model for children
and youth

13. Timeline of quitting
20 minutes after last cigarette: blood pressure and pulse rate drops; body
temperature rises toward normal
8 hours after quitting: carbon monoxide level in blood drops to
normal; oxygen level rises to normal
24 hours after quitting: chance of a heart attack decreases
48 hours after quitting: nerve endings start re-growing; ability to smell
and taste is enhanced
After 2 weeks to 3 months: circulation improves; walking becomes easier;
lung function improves

14. Time of quitting
After 1 to 9 months decrease in coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue,
shortness of breath
After 1 year: excess risk of coronary heart disease is
decreased to half that of a smoker
After 5 to 15 years: stroke risk is reduced to that of people who
have never smoked
After 10 years: risk of lung cancer drops to as little as one-half
that of continuing smokers; risk of cancer of
the mouth, throat, oesophagus, bladder,
kidney, and pancreas decreases; risk of ulcer
decreases
After 15 years: risk of coronary heart disease is now similar to
that of people who have never smoked; risk of
death returns to nearly the level of people who
have never smoked.

15. Know the law – it’s your right
to a smoke-free world
• Legislation is very clear about where people may
smoke and where smoking is prohibited
• It’s your right to complain when someone
smokes in your presence
• It’s also your right to take remedial steps if
someone smokes in any area where smoking is
prohibited
• Read the key points to this law here:
http://www.cansa.org.za/know-the-law-its-
your-right-to-a-smoke-free-world/

16. Keep your environment smoke-free
• Keep your environment smoke-free
and report all non-compliance of the
Tobacco Control Act to the
Environmental Health Officer of the
local municipality where the incident
occurred.

17. The End
Thank You
www.cansa.org.za
Toll-free 0800 22 66 22
Whilst the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) has taken every precaution in compiling this presentation,
neither it, nor any contributor(s) to this presentation can be held responsible for any action (or the lack thereof) taken
by any person or organisation wherever they shall be based, as a result, direct or otherwise, of information contained
in, or accessed through, this presentation.