In addition to Australia, plain packaging has also been embraced in France, the United Kingdom and Ireland, while formal consideration is also underway in Norway, Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, Singapore, Belgium and South Africa.
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According to a report in IB TIME by Himanshu Goenka, “The World No Tobacco Day is observed on May 31 every year, and this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for governments across the world to enact policies for plain packaging of tobacco products”.
Mayco member for health Siyabulela Mamkeli described the number of complaints as “very small”, but said the council had “seen an increase in the number of enquiries about e-cigarettes, especially from businesses that are not sure how to regulate the use of these devices”.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that the Vietnamese smoking population is among the biggest in the world, with almost half of the male population aged 15 or more, or more than 15 million people, engaging in the habit. Brand names will be allowed but regulations will standardise how and where the printing is.
However, Australia is still waiting for the outcome of a challenge to its plain packaging laws that is being dealt with by the World Trade Organisation. “Tobacco’s impact goes beyond public health, stymieing the growth prospects of developing economies and burdening taxpayers and health systems whose finite resources could be better used elsewhere”, she said.
The Canadian Coalition for Action on Tobacco, which includes the Heart and Stroke Foundation and Canadian Cancer Society, called for plain and standardized packaging that would prohibit all promotional features on all tobacco packaging, including colours, images, logos, slogans and distinctive fonts.
On this day, the World Health Organization is increasing pressure on countries to use plain packaging for all tobacco products to reduce their attractiveness, particularly to young people.
Tobacco control measures are included in guidelines to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), a legislation that the WHO says it would do whatever it takes to accelerate its implementation. Beijing is celebrating a year since its public smoking ban. Other countries have followed its lead.
It’s estimated between 4500 and 5000 people die from smoking-related illnesses each year.
Tobacco giants now have a year to sell old stock and fully implement the changes.
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The Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules, 2008 mandated that all tobacco products – chewable or otherwise – were required to display graphic pictures, such as pictures of diseased lungs and the text smoking kills or tobacco kills in English.
