Cigarettes will be sold in plain packages after the High Court in London rejected an appeal by the tobacco industry to prevent the new law.
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You’ll also say goodbye to packs of 10.
Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) chief executive Deborah Arnott said: “This landmark judgment is a crushing defeat for the tobacco industry and fully justifies the Government’s determination to go ahead with the introduction of standardised packaging”.
“Millions of pounds have been spent on some of the country’s most expensive lawyers in the hope of blocking the policy”, she said.
Tobacco product manufacturers must now demonstrate that their products meet the applicable public health standards set by the FDA, and they must receive marketing authorization from the agency.
“From May 20 all packs manufactured for sale in the United Kingdom will have to be plain, standardised in the same drab green colour with the product name on the pack in a standard font”.
They will also have to display large, updated health warnings, which will cover 65 per cent of both the front and back of the packet.
Linda Bauld of Cancer Research UK hailed the move as an “important step in driving down smoking rates further”.
Standardised packaging is free of anything that can promote the product or make it attractive, and is consistent across all brands.
Two thirds of current smokers started when they were children. “We look forward to a tobacco-free generation which won’t be scarred by this lethal addiction”.
Under the new rules, which have come via an European Union directive, cigarette packets will have to contain at least 20 cigarettes, and flavoured tobacco and cigarettes will be banned completely.
A hard-line approach to e-cigarettes is here to stay at Wigan Infirmary despite a ban’s being lifted by another hospital trust.
Just one product has so far got a licence as a smoking-cessation aid from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority in the United Kingdom, made by the giant tobacco company British American Tobacco, although it is not yet in the shops.
“We have more to do to help protect Americans from the dangers of tobacco and nicotine, especially our youth”, stated U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. It’s gesture politics created to appease public health campaigners who are forever searching for new ways to force smokers to quit.
“38% of smokers thought it would encourage them to quit smoking, with 44% disagreeing, while 35% of smokers thought it would encourage family or friends to quit”, he said.
In the high court case, the tobacco companies attacked the European Union regulations and the United Kingdom parliamentary process that adopted them.
In his 386-page, 1,000-paragraph written ruling, Mr Justice Green said: “The regulations were lawful when they were promulgated by Parliament and they are lawful now in the light of the most up-to-date evidence”.
The quartet of tobacco companies argued the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015, would destroy their valuable property rights and render products indistinguishable from each other.
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Small bags (less than 30g) of tobacco used for rollies will also be banned.
