The tobacco industry disputes those findings and claims the fall-off in tobacco consumption was due to increases in excise duty and other health education policies. What is plain packaging?
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Imposing neutral cigarette packs, she said, “kills the glamour, which is appropriate for a product that kills people”. The second country to pass a plain packaging legislation was Ireland, in March 2015, and is preparing to introduce the measure, according to the World Health Organization release.
Samples of plain packages are black, with large warnings advising the user that smoking kills. It limits misleading packaging and labelling.
In addition to Australia, the United Kingdom and France, other countries such as Ireland, Norway, Singapore, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Panama, New Zealand and Belgium are at various stages of considering the introduction of plain packets of cigarettes.
Over five million Canadians use tobacco, costing nearly $4.4 billion in annual direct health care costs according to data from the Government of Canada.
How long, then, will it take for the country to see another tobacco-control policy in place: plain packaging on cigarette packs?
In a bid to kill the glamour and attractiveness associated with smoking, the World Health Organisation has decided to make plain packaging for cigarettes “global”.
Smoking has declined, however.
World No Tobacco Day was observed in the country on Tuesday as elsewhere across the globe, aiming to make people aware of the adverse impacts of tobacco use.
That equates to more than 108,000 people quitting, not relapsing or not starting to smoke during the period, said the report, citing Australian statistics.
“Plain packaging is going global as more and more countries seek the important health gains it can bring to communities”, says Dr Bettcher.
The tobacco industry fought particularly hard to block the introduction of plain packets, and has mounted numerous legal challenges against countries seeking to impose them.
Program Associate at Students For Liberty David Clement was present in front of Canada’s federal parliament on Tuesday to hand out the chocolate bars in protest of the idea of the plain packaging of tobacco products, due to be introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration.
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As part of World No-Tobacco Day, which is marked on May 31 in 2016, the WHO has urged governments to introduce plain packaging, saying this saves lives by reducing the demand for tobacco products. “The sooner plain and standardized packaging is implemented, the sooner youth and public health in Canada will be better protected from the tobacco industry’s promotional inducements”.
