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Gov't to mandate cigarette makers disclose ingredients in products

Published: 06 Feb. 2025, 15:39

LEE SOO-JUNG
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A person holds a box of cigarettes at a convenience store in Seoul on Dec. 23 last year. [YONHAP]

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on Thursday that it would mandate that cigarette manufacturers disclose ingredients used in their products starting next year.

The Health Ministry said it prepared a specific enforcement decree — slated to go into effect this November — for the Act on the Management of Harmfulness of Tobacco.

According to the ministry’s decree, tobacco manufacturers and importers should request laboratory tests to determine noxious ingredients in their products within three months from the enactment of the provision on Nov. 1 this year. It also requires cigarettes to undergo such testing every two years.

The companies should submit testing results to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety within 15 days after they receive them from laboratories.

Regarding newly launched cigarettes, manufacturing companies or importing enterprises should ensure the products are tested within a month after their public sales begin.

The food and drug safety minister should disclose the tested cigarettes’ toxicity and carcinogenicity on the ministry’s website every year until Dec. 31. The disclosure is expected to start in the second half of 2026.

Also, a policymaking committee managing the harmfulness of tobacco will decide the extent of disclosure and specific means of disclosure. Any committee members who have benefited from tobacco manufacturers would be dismissed.

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said the decree and disclosure of tobacco ingredients’ toxicity would help raise awareness of their harmfulness, adding that the ministry would continuously provide smoking prevention support to the public.

Food and Drug Safety Minister Oh Yu-Kyoung said the ministry will do its best “to guarantee people’s right to information and to protect public health by transparently disclosing pernicious substances in cigarettes based on scientific professionalism.”

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]