South Korean Cigarette Companies Must Test Harmful Tobacco Substances Every Two Years or Face Penalt

South Korea has passed a bill requiring disclosure of the types and amounts of all harmful substances in cigarettes. The bill defines cigarettes and cigarette additives, cigarette emissions, and harmfulness management, and stipulates that tobacco companies must test harmful ingredient levels every two years, with strict penalties for false statements. The bill applies to both tobacco cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

According to a Newsis report on October 6, a bill requiring disclosure of the types and amounts of all harmful substances in cigarettes was recently passed by the South Korean parliament. In addition to nicotine and tar, which were already required to be disclosed, the current law will now also require disclosure of substances contained in other additives and emissions. The bill passed the plenary vote by an overwhelming margin: of the 248 lawmakers present, 243 voted in favor, with only 5 abstentions.

Cigarette smoke contains a variety of carcinogens and harmful substances. It is estimated that there are about 70 categories and more than 7,000 specific compounds. However, under South Korea’s existing law, only nicotine and tar content had to be disclosed. For carcinogenic substances such as nicotine, benzene, and cadmium, only their names were listed, without disclosure of their amounts. This made it difficult for consumers to obtain specific information about the levels of harmful substances in cigarette additives and emissions.

During the legislative process for this new bill, special attention was given to the fact that developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and France have already established national harmfulness management systems to analyze and publicly disclose major harmful cigarette constituents, thereby protecting citizens’ right to know and right to choose. Based on this, South Korean lawmakers formulated this bill to regulate the harmfulness of cigarettes, cigarette additives, and cigarette emissions.

The new bill defines and regulates issues related to cigarettes, cigarette additives, cigarette emissions, and cigarette harmfulness management, and provides a legal basis for doing so. The bill also stipulates that the Minister of Health and Welfare and the Commissioner of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety shall jointly formulate and implement a basic five-year plan for cigarette harmfulness management. 

In addition, the bill requires the establishment of a Cigarette Harmfulness Management Policy Committee to deliberate on matters related to cigarette harmfulness management. All cigarette manufacturers and distributors must test the harmful constituent levels of the cigarettes they sell once every two years and submit the test reports and related materials to the Commissioner of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. 

The new bill also provides that if tobacco companies make false statements about harmful constituent testing or submit fraudulent test reports, they will face imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of up to 10 million won. The new bill applies to both cigarettes containing tobacco leaf and e-cigarettes and e-liquid.