Stay Order refused on new tobacco packaging law

The Appeal Court today refused to issue a stay order sought by the Ceylon Tobacco Company to quash the Gazette notification for pictorial warnings on cigarette packets.

 

The CTC filled a case challenging the Tobacco Products (Labelling and Packaging) Regulations No. 01 of 2012 published by the Minister of Health in the Government Gazette Extraordinary No 1770/15 dated 8 August 2012. The Health Minister, Health Ministry Secretary and the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol have been cited as respondents in the petition.

 

The regulations, gazetted in August says, “No packet, package, carton or label of any tobacco product shall contain any message which is “false, misleading or deceptive concerning the effects or hazards on health from the use of any tobacco product or from any emission arising out of the use of any tobacco product”.

Pictorial health warnings on the dangers of smoking covering not less than 80 per cent of the outside of a cigarette packet as specified by the Health Minister’s gazette notification will come into effect from March 1.

The petitioner sought the Court to quash regulations gazetted by the Health Minister on August 8, 2012 and cited Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena, Minstry Secretary and the Chairman of the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol as respondents.

The regulations were prepared by the Health Minister under the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol Authority Act of 2006.

The regulations state as follows:

1. These regulations may be cited as Tobacco Products (Labelling and Packaging) Regulations and shall come into operation on the date on which a period of three months from the date of the publication of these regulations in the Gazette expires;

2. No packet, package, carton or label of any tobacco product shall contain any message which is false, misleading or deceptive concerning the effect or hazards on health from the use of any tobacco product or from any emission arising out of the use of any tobacco product;

3. No packet, package, carton or label of any tobacco product which is distributed, sold or offered for sale shall contain any term, description, trade mark, figurative or any other sign that directly or indirectly creates or is likely to create, by the use of words such as “low”, “light”, “ultra”, “mild”, or “extra” and impression that the tobacco product sold in such packet, package or carton is less harmful than any other tobacco product which is distributed, sold or offered for sale;

4. No manufacturer, importer, retailer, storekeeper, agent or seller of any cigarette packet, package or carton containing cigarettes, shall produce, supply, distribute, sell or offer for sale any such packet, package or carton unless every packet, package, or carton containing cigarettes which is distributed, sold or offered for sale carries the specified health warning as depicted in the Schedule to these regulations;

5. The pictorial health warning as is specified in the Schedule to these regulations shall be printed on both sides of every Cigarette packet, package or carton containing Cigarette and shall cover an are of not less that 80% of the total area of a packet, package or a carton;

6. Every packet, package, carton or label which is used in connection with the sale of any tobacco product shall have printed thereon information on the relevant constituents and emissions of the tobacco product contained in such packet, package, carton or label including Formaldehyde and other toxic contents if any;

7. Every tobacco product whether sold in a packet, package and carton shall have printed thereon the date, month and year of production thereof;

8. Every health warning and other information relating to any emission printed in any packet, package, carton or label of any tobacco product shall be printed thereon in a font size which is not less than 10 and shall be in all three languages;

9. The health warning on any packet, package, carton or label of cigarette product shall not be concealed by any other marks or pictures and shall be printed on either a black background in white letters or on a white background in black letters;

10. Every cigarette manufacturer of the different brands of cigarette products shall ensure that, there shall be printed on any packet, package or carton containing cigarette product, only on type of pictorial health warning of each category as is set out in the Schedule to these regulations and such pictorial health warning shall be changed once in every six months.