Tobacco regulations continue to be a pain in the side of big tobacco.
Since the disclosure of cigarette ingredients in the 1990s and the established evidence of the dangers of smoking governments across the world have intensified tobacco regulations.
This controls are two pronged.
They target the manufacturer of tobacco products as well as the consumer of tobacco products with the same end objective of limiting the use of tobacco.
The following are some of the regulations as work in different countries today.
Public smoking bans Smoking bans are perhaps the most noticeable in many countries.
Many governments have gone on to ban smoking in public places as a way of regulation tobacco use.
Today smoking in airports, bars, hotels and restaurants amounts to criminal offense in many places.
In addition, in countries such as the UK building owners have a legal obligation to clearly display non-smoking signs at the entrance of the building and within to stop people from using cigarettes on the premises.
Fines for violations may run onto thousands of dollars including court appearance which might end in short term imprisonment or community service.
This regulation is very effective and has generally been respected due to the ease with which the general public itself can enforce it by quickly laying complaints against violators.
Tobacco Taxes The WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) recognizes the role that taxes can play in discouraging tobacco consumption.
Apart from dangers associated with smoking, quitting smokers cite the ever increasing price of tobacco as a result of taxes.
In Japan the government there has successfully reduced the number of smokers by simply raising the cost of smoking.
It is clear that tobacco companies themselves will do everything they can to shield themselves from the impact of taxes by passing on the cost to the end user.
The bigger picture is that less people are smoking cigarettes in general and tobacco company revenues are going up.
The most important result should be that less and less people get to smoke due to heavy taxation.
Advertising Regulations Tobacco advertising bans are now very popular in most western cities across the world.
Other leading developing countries such as South Africa have also since introduced tough regulations against tobacco advertising.
This has the overall effect of limiting points of contact between tobacco companies and would be smokers especially teenage tobacco users.
Limited exposure to the world of tobacco is obviously beneficial to any community were young people are at risk of being mislead by tobacco advertisements that have been shown to incite the young.
That being as it may, big tobacco has always found other means to reach the young through different media such as movies.
Product Use Age Restrictions The introduction of age restrictions in terms of who can access tobacco products has also been very useful.
In many countries young people under the age of 18 years cannot purchase tobacco products from any supplier.
The limitation to this approach has been poor implementation of the regulations and policies to such an extent that tobacco products have still found their way into the hands of under age users.
This can simply be rectified when communities and authorities help to enforce the regulations.