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New Law Regarding Tobacco Product Commercialization and Health Disclosure


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Tobacco bill gathered dust as health costs and deaths soared

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Cigarets will be harder to find

Posted 27/03/2019
 
After four years of gathering dust in committee draft law 136, which establishes provisions related to the content and dissemination of information on tobacco products got Third Reading in the National Assembly on Wednesday, March 27. 

Data from the Ministry of health reveals that about $105 million is spent annually on basic care for people suffering from the ills that result from the consumption of tobacco products. and about 2.000  die each year from tobacco-related causes.
Under the new law only businesses with special licenses from the Health Ministry will be allowed to sell tobacco products.

The project was promoted by the deputies Crispiano Adames, Javier Ortega and José Luis Castillo on January 20, 2015.  It  was shelved in the Labor, Health and Social Development Committee of the  National Assembly and  discussion was postponed for almost four years, while it was reviewed by a subcommittee, until October 30, 2018, when it was approved in the first debate, with the favorable vote of five of the committee’s nine deputies

Subsequently, the legislative plenary voted in favor of forming an ad hoc commission, on February 6, 2019, to analyze the document approved in the first debate. On the recommendation of the committee, several modifications were incorporated during the discussion and it was approved, in the second debate, on March 26. A day later it was approved in the third debate.

Article 3 of the bill establishes that all commercial establishments that sell, distribute, manufacture or import tobacco products and their derivatives must have a special license that authorizes them, which will be issued by the Ministry of Health. (Minsa).

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/health/tobacco-bill-gathered-dust-as-health-costs-and-deaths-soared

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Tobacco: Law on Consumption and Commercialization Passed

Changes in product labeling and greater regulation in the licensing process are some of the provisions approved by the National Assembly of Panama.

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Cigarette packages marketed in the country must comply with simple packaging, brand name, health warnings and other characteristics, are some of the approved changes.

You may be interested in "Tobacco: Incipient Market in El Salvador"

From the Legislative Assembly statement:

Increased controls on tobacco consumption, including less conspicuous labelling and better regulation in the issuance of licences, with the particular aim of discouraging young smokers and combating smuggling, Bill 136, which establishes provisions relating to the substance and dissemination of information on tobacco products, was passed in the third debate.

The project establishes that all cigarette packages marketed in the country must comply with simple packaging, brand name, health warnings and other characteristics.

Read full article (In Spanish).

 

https://www.centralamericadata.com/en/article/main/Tobacco_Law_on_Consumption_and_Commercialization_Passed

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  • Moderator_02 changed the title to New Law Regarding Tobacco Product Commercialization and Health Disclosure
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Health workers call for tobacco bill veto

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Posted 01/04/2019
 
Officials from the Ministry of Health (MINSA) protested on Monday, April 1  against the watering down of a recently approved bill governing provisions related to the content and disclosure of information on tobacco products.

Minsa opposes the changes made to the original proposal and calls on  President Juan Carlos Varela, to veto the document.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/health/health-workers-call-for-tobacco-bill-veto

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Retrograde tobacco bill to  get Varela  veto

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Posted 10/04/2019
 
After outcries from The Ministry of Health (Minsa), cancer centers and NGO’s President Juan Carlos Varela has promised to veto a tobacco bill that lingered in the committee rooms of the National Assembly for four years before getting a recent third 3rd reading.

According to opponents, the bill was a step backward and relaxed existing controls.

 "The Minister of Health is going to recommend the veto of law and we will proceed as the Minister of Health indicates," Varela said Tuesday, April 9 in Veracruz, at the opening of the Latin America, Global Business Forum.

Varela did not specify if the veto will be total or partial.

Health Minister Miguel Mayo said last week that he will recommend the veto of the bill, an action requested by organizations such as Fundacáncer, the Panamanian Coalition against Smoking and the Panamanian Society of Oncology, which ensure that the legislative proposal introduces changes to Law 13 of 2008, relaxing the restrictions imposed by the tobacco companies, the promotion of tobacco and the practice of smoking in public places.

Crispiano Adames  the proponent of the bill and president of the Commission for Health, Labor and Social Development,  said that the project represents an advance in public health, as the existing law  did not incorporate a regulatory system,(license) for  each establishment dedicated to the sale of tobacco the products

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/health/retrograde-tobacco-bill-to-get-varela-veto

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Watered down tobacco bill vetoed

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Posted 03/05/2019

A controversial tobacco bill, that watered down anti-smoking regulations was vetoed by President Juan Carlos Varela on Thursday May 2.

Reina Roa, director of Planning and Coordinator of the Commission of Control of Tobacco of the Ministry of Health (Minsa), said  that they requested the total veto of the project as it  did not reflect the aspects of greater importance of the original  document.

She  added that the initiative in the end was establishing provisions that made the current legislation (Law 13 January 2008) lose strength and therefore, was step back in the implementation of the framework agreement of the World Health Organization, to control the tobacco and the protection of public health in our country.

The biggest problem of the project originated because it did not include essential regulations, such as simple packaging, the prohibition of adding menthol to tobacco products and provisions of the framework agreement of the World Health Organization that the country must regulate .

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/health/watered-down-tobacco-bill-vetoed

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