After much debate and opposition, the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act (Act 12 of 1999) was enacted. And yet despite all the controversy, the principles contained in the legislation are very much in line with international thinking and the efforts of the World Health Organisation.

The Amendment Act is available in PDF (portable document format) from the government web site  http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/legislation/1999/act12.pdf . It aims to reduce the pressure on young people to begin a lifelong addiction, protect the constitutional right of the non-smoking majority to a smoke free environment and attempt to reduce the harmfulness of cigarettes for those who cannot or will not stop smoking. The main mechanisms used by the Act to achieve this include the prohibition of advertising and promotion of tobacco products, prohibition of free distribution of tobacco products, limitation of smoking in public places including the workplace and allowance for the regulation of the nicotine and tar levels of tobacco smoke.

World No-Tobacco Day was on 31 May 1999, and the WHO have set up an area of their web site with comprehensive information on all aspects of tobacco use http://www.who.int/toh/worldnotobacco99/teaser.htm   - this URL does seem to keep changing, so if it doesn't work, go back to www.who.int  and look for tobacco links from there!). In addition, WHO has finally gained permission from its member states in May to start negotiating an international legal instrument to curb the global spread of tobacco use. This aims to strengthen trans-national controls on tobacco so that individual governments' health policies will no longer be undermined by smuggling, international advertising and promotion, or lax labelling laws, for example (as reported in the BMJ http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/318/7196/1437 ).

For those interested in following the international debate on regulation of tobacco use, the International Tobacco List-serv is the email list to join. Subscribe by sending the message "subscribe intl-tobacco <your name>" to listproc@essential.org  (without the "" and inserting your actual name). More information and access to the archives are available from http://lists.essential.org/. The Taking on Tobacco web site is hosted by the Essential Action activist group at http://www.essential.org/action/tobacco/   - a number of resources covering issues of the profit incentive behind tobacco companies actions is accessible from http://www.essentialaction.org/addicted/res.html . For example, an article from the Health Science Analysis Project at http://scarcnet.org/hsap/international.htm   outlines international implications of US tobacco legislation. Another article at http://www.essentialaction.org/addicted/   (Addicted to Profit: Big Tobacco's Expanding Global Reach) looks both at global issues and case studies of some countries efforts, including South Africa. WHO also provides detailed reports of country profiles with respect to tobacco and health at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/osh/who/whofirst.htm .

For more news, literature and general information on the global tobacco situation, take a look at these web sites:

• Journal of Tobacco Control http://www.bmjpg.com/data/tob.htm

• Smokescreen Action Network http://www.smokescreen.org

• Tobacco BBS http://www.tobacco.org
• Tobacco News Summaries http://www.jointogether.org/Wire/NewsList.asp?SiteID=Quitnet

• Jack Cannon's Tobacco Industry Information http://www.gate.net/~jcannon/tobacco.html  

• National Center for Tobacco Free Kids http://www.tobaccofreekids.org  

The Tobacco Reporter www.TobaccoReporter.com   is a trade journal looking at some of the issues facing the tobacco industry.

While the current edition of the Essential Drugs List is still recommending the Yuzpe method of post-coital contraception (see http://www.sadap.org.za/edl/phc/7.05.asp ), the international literature is increasingly pointing to the evidence for using a progestogen-only regimen. In the April 1999 edition of the PATH publication, Outlook, results from some research studies were discussed http://www.path.org/outlook/html/17_1.htm#ecupdate. Emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) containing only levonorgestrel are more effective and have fewer side effects than combined ECPs, according to a recent study by the World Health Organization (WHO) involving 1998 women at 21 centres worldwide. Another study found that the availability of emergency contraception, including advance prescriptions, does not encourage women to abandon other methods of contraception.