Smokers are being reminded that the Tobacco Control Act comes into effect tomorrow.

Flavoured tobacco products will no longer be sold, electronic cigarettes will only be available in pharmacies and there will be new restrictions on where people can smoke.

Department of Health director David Kendell said these are some of the changes that are being implemented to reduce smoking among children along with exposure to chronic disease risk factors.

“It’s taking smoking and making sure it’s not normalised,” he told The Royal Gazette.

“In the early months of this being implemented, our goal is to communicate. Because the boundaries have shifted, we want to let people know where the new boundaries are.

“There are going to be some things which are going to be immediately apparent, they’ll notice that some things will no longer be for sale.”

Flavoured tobacco products, excluding menthol flavours, will no longer be available and descriptions such as “mild”, “light” and “ultralight” will be banned.

New controls will be placed on the promotion of tobacco brands and products and tighter rules on the display and sale of tobacco products mean they can no longer be displayed within three metres of candy and toys. “The intent is that it separates the point of sale for tobacco away from objects for kids,” Mr Kendell explained.

Tobacco advertising at point of sale will also be banned and minors will not be able to buy rolling papers.

Existing prohibitions on smoking indoors and in work vehicles will also be extended to vaping and e-cigarettes will only be available in pharmacies.

“Nicotine has always been and is being regarded as a drug, so when you get it in a liquid form it will be considered a medication.

“We want to encourage its use for therapeutic use, that is people who may want to try it for smoking cessation.

“But we didn’t want kids going out and buying them to experiment, getting peanut butter flavour or cherry at any little corner store.”

More restrictions have also been placed on where smokers can light up.

“Since 2005 you haven’t been able to smoke indoors and that was very effective,” Mr Kendell said. “We’re introducing, incrementally again, some types of premises where you will not be able to smoke anywhere on the property. That’s health facilities, educational facilities and the ferry and bus terminal.”

But Mr Kendell said the point was not to ban smoking completely, rather to reduce the percentage of smokers from 14 per cent to less than 10 per cent, and to stop people taking up smoking.

“This whole Act is not something we pulled out of the air,” he added. “It’s the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which is an international convention.”

“We could’ve gone a lot further,” he said, noting jurisdictions such as the UK that have implemented even stricter laws. “We decided to gradually implement.”

According to the Steps to a Well Bermuda Survey 2014, 20 per cent of men and 7.5 per cent of women smoke, with the average age that smokers take up the habit being 17.8 years.

And Mr Kendell added that new US data showed that the greatest uptake of smoking was through hookah or electronic cigarettes.

“Hopefully we’ve put something in place that will prevent the kids of Bermuda starting to smoke because of those things.”

Mr Kendell also pointed to the Report of the Survey of Students on Knowledge and Attitudes of Drugs and Health 2012 that showed some children in Bermuda start smoking at 8 years old. Meanwhile, the National School Survey 2015 found that 25 per cent of smokers attending middle and high schools get their cigarettes from shops.

Therefore the main intent of the new policy “was to reduce the smoking among children”, he said, adding that other factors include health and the cost of healthcare.

He said smoking has “a huge impact on Bermuda’s healthcare costs, which are constantly rising”, and added: “Any dent that we can make in smoking will help to reduce that.”