“Three years’ worth of government evidence from Australia shows that plain packaging has not reduced smoking rates, the volume of tobacco consumed, or youth smoking”.
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According to World Health Organization, one person dies from tobacco-caused disease every six seconds, amounting to almost 6 million people each year – a number expected to rise to more than 8 million by 2030.
Prompted by World Tobacco Day, activists from the worldwide grassroots activist group Students For Liberty took to Parliament Hill on Tuesday to hand out their “No Nanny” plain-packaged chocolate bars to legislators and federal employees. Plain and standard packaging for all brands and types of tobacco products would ensure that all packs are the same size, same shape and same colour.
The federal government would like to implement legislation that will require plain and standardized packaging to minimize strategic marketing by regulating the use of colours, images, logos, slogans, distinctive fonts and finishes – enhancing the visibility and effectiveness of health warnings.
Plain packaging, on the other hand, makes tobacco products less attractive and directly informs the users of the negative health effects of tobacco use with a graphic picture and health warning.
Plain packaged chocolate bars handed out by Students For Liberty on World No Tobacco Day.
“I don’t believe tobacco companies should be allowed to build brand loyalty with children, for a product that could kill them”, said Dr. Philpott in an interview.
In commemorating World No Tobacco Day on Tuesday, PAHO said these deaths are “eminently preventable through tobacco control”.
Graphic/pictorial health warnings too are forceful for keeping tobacco use low, especially among young people.
“Plain packaging reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products”, World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan said in a statement.
More recently, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and France have passed laws to implement plain packaging from May 2016.
In 2012, Australia became the first country to fully implement plain packaging, a regulation that has led to “explosive growth of the illicit market” for contraband tobacco sales, says Jeff Rogut, CEO of the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS).
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“WHO recommends plain packaging as part of a comprehensive approach to tobacco control: it works best alongside other tobacco-control measures, including comprehensive anti-smoking laws, bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, raising tobacco taxes and large, graphic health warnings”, he said. The judge rejected legal grounds for challenge from British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International, Japan Tobacco International and Imperial Brands.
