Kazakhstan strengthens its tobacco control laws

Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a new Public Health and Healthcare Code on July 7, 2020. It includes new tobacco control measures.

A new health code including several strict anti-smoking provisions

In 2018, nearly 24% of the Kazakh population (15 years and older) were regular smokers. Each year, smoking causes more than 22,500 premature deaths[1] in the country. To address this challenge, the government has enacted new comprehensive tobacco control measures aimed at protecting all Kazakhstanis from the health and economic consequences of tobacco use. These include:

- A broadening of the definition of tobacco products to include not only cigarettes, heated tobacco, etc., but also products containing nicotine such as electronic cigarettes, provided that these products do not correspond to medicines;

- An extension of the ban on all advertising and displays at points of sale;

- Development of smoke-free areas (outdoor play areas, underground walkways, cars in the presence of minors);

- A ban on the consumption of all new products previously defined in places where smoking is already prohibited;

- An increase in health warnings on tobacco product packaging (from 50 to 65% of the main surfaces of the pack)

- An increase in the legal age for purchasing tobacco products from 18 to 21;

- An obligation to declare the ingredients and contents of all products containing nicotine.

A powerful tobacco lobby that political leaders have been able to resist

Kazakhstan is facing major pressure from the tobacco industry regarding its public health policies. In June 2019, the National Coalition for a Smoke-Free Kazakhstan alerted the organization STOP of a collaboration between PMI and scientists from the most prestigious medical institutions in Kazakhstan. The subject of this collaboration concerns research on heated tobacco products. This collaboration led to a communication on the website of the Kazakh National Medical University where several articles addressed: “ Using tobacco heating systems is less harmful to health than traditional cigarettes ".

These articles have sparked a wave of indignation in the scientific community and among the Coalition which, in a letter open has categorically opposed the phenomenon of cooperation and financing of the tobacco industry, in violation of scientific ethics and article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, ratified by Kazakhstan.

As part of this new health code, the tobacco industry was once again particularly active in countering provisions intended to reduce tobacco consumption by lobbying members of the government and parliament with arguments that, according to public health advocates, amount to misinformation. Ultimately, parliament overwhelmingly rejected the tobacco industry's proposals and approved the public health bill.