Tobacco Documents Online

Quote: Mr. Jassim Moharnnaed Darwish. Secretary-General General Secretariat of U.AE: Municipalities P.O. Box 3774' Abu Dhabiy UAE T'elk 02-333151 Mr. Abdul Raoof Al-Mubarak Under-Secretary Ministry of Economy & Commerce P.O. Box 9'0'1 Abu Dhabi; UAE Tel: 02-33i6954' United Arab Emirates Government of Fujairah Fujairah Municipality Notice No. 26/91 issued by the Healit'h Section of P'ujairah, Mnni+cipalii 'ty Dear Mr. After greetings: We, agents and distributors for the cigarette manufact'uring companies named below, would' respectfully submit to you our coanments and concerns regarding item 5 of the. Notice 26/91, nanlely: "Production dates must be mentioned on packets with month & year". We understandlfrorn the UAE Health Authorities that the issue of month-and-year date- coding on cigarette packets sold in the United Arab Emirates is stil2l being discussed within the UAE Health Ministry. It' has also been brought to our attention by the responsible H'ealth Authorities that the requirement for rnontlh-and~year has not been adopted in alll AGCC countries, and whether to keep or remove these specifications is under review at ministerial level ini the AGCC. We would respectfully point out that tobacco is not like perishable foodstuffs. Its fitnesss for use doesnotd~epend on its age. Iindeed, tnb,aicco~ is often del'aberat~e~liystored and~ matured for 2-3 years before being used for cigarette manufacture, so the date of production does not reflect the age of the tobacco. The condition of the final product sold to, the public depends mainly on the conditions of storage. The consumer may therefore be misled by purchassng, according to t'h~emanufa~cturing date rather than~ the~~ condh'tion of the packaging. We are all concerned to ensure that, the consumer only buys good quality products. From our years of experience we know that the best way to achieve this is by visuall inspection before purchase. The date of manufacture is not a reliiable guide to product ~ quality. ~~

We also understand! that if'however the requirement to specify both rnonth-and-year is applicable, we would be given a reasonable time - six (6) months - to corrnply in order to allow for existing stocks and cases already shippedi to be depleted. Should the UAE Health authorities decide to enforce the nnonth-and-year specifications, we would of course comply with the regulations. Respectfully yours, Unquote. Kind regards. Robin Allen