20/07/2001 14:38  - (SA)

Related Articles Landmark ruling on smoking

Cape Town - The ministry of health on Friday welcomed what are believed to be the first convictions under South Africa's law against smoking in public places.

At the same time, it said it was considering even tougher measures to protect people from the dangers of second-hand smoke.

This week two Port Elizabeth men were jailed for 20 days when they were unable to pay a R200 fine for ignoring warnings not to smoke in the city's New Law Courts.

The magistrate who convicted them said he hoped the sentence would serve as a deterrent to would-be smokers in public places.

Since January 1 this year, it has been a criminal offence to smoke in enclosed public places, except in specially designated and ventilated areas. The ban also covers the workplace.

Patricia Lambert, legal adviser to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, said on Friday that the ministry welcomed the conviction.

'The law can be enforced'

"This shows that the law can and will be enforced, and we are encouraging everyone to respect and uphold the rule of law," she said.

She said the Department of Health had embarked on a comprehensive training programme for local environmental health officers (EHO) over the last 12 months, and also held top-level meetings with the EHOs, the directorate of public prosecutions, and police.

"Clearly this [the convictions] is evidence that these efforts are beginning to bear fruit," she said.

"We are more convinced than ever of the necessity of protecting non-smokers, and especially children, from the toxicity of environmental tobacco smoke."

Lambert also welcomed a report that a Northern Cape High Court judge had ordered in a child custody hearing that the child's mother and her friends may not smoke in a room or a vehicle where the one-year-old is present.

"It's long been a matter of grave concern to me that the legislation we drafted was not able to reach into people's homes to protect children from tobacco smoke," Lambert said.

"This judgment appears to be a very positive step towards comprehensively protecting children's' health and well-being."

She said the department was discussing the possibility of more stringent fines for smoking in public places, and looking at measures to ensure smokers banned from buildings did not congregate in doorways, forcing people to enter premises through clouds of smoke.

Children to be protected

"We are also taking legal advice on what we can do to protect children in cars and other confined spaces," she said.

Peter Ucko of the non-governmental organisation National Council Against Smoking also welcomed the convictions and the High Court ruling.

"I'm delighted that parents are now being forced to recognise that smoking in the presence of a child is tantamount to assault," he said. "It's equal to hitting them with a stick."

He said under South African law, other high courts would have to take note of the judgment, and all the lower courts would be bound by it.

"While the judge's actions are commendable, I believe he could have gone further and instructed the mother to give up smoking, or award custody to the father," he said.

"The mother may smoke outside, but the chemical toxins hang in her jersey and her hair, and when she has contact with the child, it absorbs those poisons."

He said he had recommended to the ministry that, at the very least, smoking in a motor car should be prohibited if there was a passenger under 16.

At best, the council would like to see a total ban on smoking in cars.