Review of the Smoke-free Environments Regulations 1999

Labelling of tobacco products - Tobacco product content regulation - Disclosure by tobacco companies - Regulation of product descriptors

Date of publication: July 2004
Submissions closed 8 October 2004

HP 3881

The Ministry of Health is undertaking a review of the Smoke-free Environments Regulations 1999.

The review covers health warnings and other information on tobacco packaging, the disclosure of tobacco product constituents and their emissions, and the possibility of modifying tobacco products to reduce the harm caused by their use.

The objectives of the Review include:

• Ensuring that New Zealand complies with the mandatory requirements of Article 11 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, as a minimum;
  
• Determining what warnings, messages, and other information (including the possibility of pictorial warnings) should optimally be required to be displayed on all tobacco products;
  
• Reviewing whether the use of certain terms, descriptors and markings should be regulated or prohibited on the grounds of actual or potential ability to mislead or deceive consumers;
  
• Reviewing the disclosure of the constituents of tobacco products and tobacco smoke; and
  
• Reviewing options for reducing the harm caused by tobacco use.

Submissions from interested parties commenting on these and related issues are due by 5.00pm on Friday 8 October 2004.

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Document availability

You can download the consultation document below in Word or PDF format.

Review of the Smoke-free Environments Regulations 1999 (PDF, 592kB)

Review of the Smoke-free Environments Regulations 1999 (Word, 479kB)

The consultation document, along with the timetable and other information relating to the review, is also available online at www.ndp.govt.nz

The closing date for written submissions is 8 October 2004.

Timing for comment on this paper

This consultation document was issued for public consideration on 30 July 2004. Submissions on the document will close at 5pm on 8 October 2004.


Timetable

The following timetable is proposed at this time.

Consultation document issued	30 July 2004
Consultation period	10 weeks
Deadline for submissions	8 October 2004
Government briefed on outcomes of consultation and recommendations for future action	March 2005
Drafting instructions issued for regulations relating to packaging and labelling	March/April 2005
Cabinet briefed on draft regulations	June 2005
Regulations promulgated	July/August 2005
Regulations come into force after a transition period	To be decided
Further policy work on tobacco product regulation, disclosure and descriptors	Ongoing from November 2005