 This photo shows cigarette packs made by KT&G. / Korea Times |
By Kim Rahn
A group of people filed a petition with the Constitutional Court, Wednesday, asking the court to review the constitutionality of the law on the state’s tobacco industry.
In the petition, nine citizens claimed the law infringes on the people’s rights to health, saying the government acknowledges the harmfulness of smoking but allows tobacco companies to manufacture cigarettes and sell them.
This is the first time for a petition to be lodged about the constitutionality of the Tobacco Law, while there have been numerous compensation suits in Korea and overseas against tobacco companies by people harmed by smoking.
If the court finds the law unconstitutional as they claim, the decision may bring huge repercussions as it will mean the state should ban production and circulation of tobacco products.
“The law on business allows the sale of tobacco through the manufacture or importation of cigarettes although the state itself recognizes smoking is harmful to health. So the law is unconstitutional,” the group said.
Participating members include Park Jae-gahb, a former director of the National Medical Center, who is an ardent anti-smoking campaigner; two citizens who smoked and now have lung cancer; two pregnant women; and two teenagers who worry about the effects of secondhand smoking.
Former Government Legislation Minister Lee Seog-yeon filed the petition on their behalf.
“The right to health, guaranteed by the Constitution, means the government not only has the duty not to harm people’s health but also is responsible for making and implementing policy for people’s health,” the group said in the petition.
“The harmfulness of tobacco has been proven scientifically and about 50,000 people die per year in Korea due to illnesses related to smoking. In that sense, the law infringes, or is highly likely to infringe on basic rights including the right to health, the right to life and the right to pursue happiness,” it said.
The petitioners claimed there are more than 60 carcinogens in cigarettes. “The government should scrap the law and instead establish a law banning the production and trade of cigarettes. It also needs to categorize tobacco as drug,” they said.
Currently, the nation has dual laws on tobacco: one governing production, import and sale of cigarettes, and displaying their main ingredients; and one on health promotion through non-smoking zone designation.
A bill to ban the making and sale of cigarettes is pending at the National Assembly. Separately, the government is planning to establish a law comprehensively regulating tobacco products, including advertising, trading and pricing. It is also seeking to make cigarette manufacturers disclose all additives they use in production.
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