The day highlights the health risks associated with tobacco use, which now claims 6 million people each year worldwide.
Advertisement
In light of World No Tobacco Day, the federal government will soon require cigarette manufacturers to create plain packaging with no colours, logos, and graphics.
It is recommended that plain packaging be used as part of a comprehensive multisectoral approach to tobacco control, ” the statement by Margaret Chan further asserted.
Ireland, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and France passed laws in 2015 to implement plain packaging from May 2016.
“There’s no question about whether we’re going to proceed with plain-packaging regulations”.
World No Tobacco Day is upon us again and this year the World Health Organisation is pushing the importance of plain packaging.
About 9.8 percent of students surveyed were smoking cigarette and the percentage of people who never smoked but were exposed to smoke rose to 23.1 percent compared to 13.1 in 2007.
Around six million deaths each year are linked to smoking.
The announcements to coincide with yesterday’s World No Tobacco Day mean cigarettes must by law be sold in drab boxes plastered with health warnings and gruesome pictures of smoking-related diseases.
“The message that “tobacco kills” isn’t getting through with the current packaging and plain packaging is a good way to amplify it and disrupt the psychology of tobacco consumption”, Singh noted.
WHO also uses the day to launch a new campaign aimed at reducing the number of people in the world who smoke tobacco.
World Health Organization said a good way to amplify the message that “tobacco kills” and disrupt the psychology of tobacco consumption is making “plain packaging” of tobacco products – also known as standardised packaging – mandatory.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged all the governments across the world to initiate plain packaging of tobacco products to save lives. “It kills the glamour, which is appropriate for a product that kills people”.
Advertisement
Earlier this month, a British court backed the government’s plans for mandatory plain packaging when it struck down a legal challenge from tobacco companies. By 2030, it is estimated that more than eight million people will die each year because of these preventable diseases.
