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BATSA has demanded that the CoGTA minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, amend the regulations that prohibit the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products before Monday.
FILE: Minister of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Image: Abigail Javier / EWN
JOHANNESBURG / CAPE TOWN – British American Tobacco South Africa (BATSA) is threatening to take legal action against the government if it does not accept its demand to lift the ban on tobacco products.
BATSA demanded on Friday that the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, modify the regulations that prohibit the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products before Monday.
The top tobacco maker called the government’s U-turn on the cigarette embargo unreasonable.
In a letter from its legal representatives, Webber Wentzel, the company said that if the regulations were not rescinded, they would go to court.
The ban, which went into effect after the blockade, has cost the Treasury at least R300 million in lost taxes.
ARE SMOKERS MOST VULNERABLE TO COVID-19?
A lung specialist said that quitting smoking now would definitely increase a smoker’s chances of fighting a COVID-19 infection.
Citing health concerns, the government decided to ban the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products under the level 4 closure restrictions that will take effect on Friday.
Does smoking make the country’s approximately 11 million smokers more vulnerable to COVID-19?
Pulmonologist and critical care specialist Professor Keertan Dheda explains that quitting the habit will definitely make a difference.
“There are several different components of lung immunity. There is a protective layer of mucus in the lungs, there are the cilia or small hairs that remove the particles. Depending on the type of immune cell and what part of the lung defense system it is observing, many of these lung defense mechanisms begin within days of quitting smoking. “
Dheda notes that smoking also increases the expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptors, which act as “docking stations” for the coronavirus and allow it to enter cells in the respiratory tract.
“Studies have shown that smoking actually regulates this receptor and, through that mechanism, can increase the risk for smokers.”
Dheda said preliminary data showed that smokers appeared to be at increased risk of contracting COVID-19 and likely to have worse clinical outcomes if infected.
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