…says some companies flouting regulations

DEMERARA Tobacco Company (DEMTOCO), a subsidiary of British American Tobacco, said while it is complying with the Tobacco Packaging and Labeling Regulations, other suppliers within the Tobacco Industry are not.

At the company’s 85th Annual General Meeting at the Pegasus Hotel held recently, DEMTOCO Chairman, Marcus Steele, and its Managing Director, Christopher Brown said the company is concerned that some suppliers of tobacco products such as cigarettes are not fully complying with Tobacco Packaging and Labeling Regulations.

“DEMTOCO is fully compliant, but there are concerns, which have been brought to us by retailors, that some of the packs outside of our brands are not complying fully as it relates to the regulations. For example, the sets require four images to be equally utilised across a case of cigarettes, now we are fully compliant with the images … (but) not everyone is, and that has emerged as an issue,” Brown told Guyana Chronicle.

According to the Tobacco Control Act, companies and importers are required to rotate two schedules (A and B) comprising two sets of graphic health images on the packages of their tobacco products for a period of 12 months each. Each schedule comprises four images, and are required to be placed evenly across the packages with effect from February 25, 2019.

The National Tobacco Control Focal Point, Dr. Kavita Singh, in a previous interview, had indicated that the Public Health Ministry had taken note that some companies and importers had favored one or two images over the other but that would not be allowed. Dr. Singh said the legislation is clear and would be complied with or sanctions would be taken against defaulters.

Despite the challenge of having to compete against importers, who are not ‘playing by the books,’ DEMTOCO Chairman assured this newspaper that the tobacco company is fully compliant with the Tobacco Control Act and the Tobacco Packaging and Labeling Regulations.

“As a responsible company we will always comply with the law as we understand it,” Steele said while noting that DEMTOCO is working along with the Public Health Ministry and the National Tobacco Control Council to iron out some issues.
“We have been implementing every single aspect of it to ensure that our trade, the retailers, the consumers, the public at large, understand the dos and don’ts as they relate to the regulations but also to ensure that they are in full compliance,” the Managing Director added.

Part VII of the Act stipulates that prescribed rotating pictorial and text health warnings must be permanently displayed on a minimum of 60 per cent of the top portion of each principal display area of any tobacco products’ outside packaging. These packages and labels are required to be in English.

However, Brown said that the Public Health Ministry has recently raised concerns about the use of certain descriptors on packages such as “filters.” According to him, the issue with respect to certain these descriptors were not raised initially.

But the Public Health Ministry’s Legal Adviser on Tobacco Control, Kesaundra Alves has long said that the legislation is clear on what is required. She had said that while most of the importers placed the graphic health images on the packages, there were other texts and images that were included in total contravention of the law.

Part VII (5) of the Act states: “The unit package and outside packaging and labelling, and the design and appearance of any tobacco product shall not promote that product by any means that are false, misleading, deceptive or likely to create an erroneous impression about the product’s characteristics, health effects, hazards or emissions, including using – (a) any term, descriptor, trademark, figurative, colour, number, or other sign of any kind that directly or indirectly creates or is likely to create the false impression that a particular tobacco product is less harmful than another; including terms such as, but not limited to, ‘low tar’, ‘light’, ‘ultra-light’ or ‘mild’, ‘smooth’, ‘natural’, ‘fine’, ‘extra fine’, ‘extra’, ‘ultra’.”
Alves noted that the remaining 40 per cent of a package should only comprise the name of the company and its logo.