The 31st of May is “World No Tobacco Day”. What does this mean to you as a smoker? Maybe you just pass by the advertisements on TV, teasing the advertisers. “Didn’t they have anything else to make an advertisement about?”, you might say.
You might also think that many things, besides smoking, result in many diseases, and in death. But the effects of smoking are far worse than you ever imagined, and there is a major thing which plays a role in how smokers look at cigarettes: The Cigarette packaging.
This year, The World Health Organization (WHO), and the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, are calling on countries to get ready for plain (standardized) packaging of tobacco products.
Plain packaging refers to “measures to restrict or prohibit the use of logos, colors, brand images or promotional information on packaging other than brand names and product names displayed in a standard color and font style (plain packaging), according to WHO.
Facts about plain packaging
Interest in plain packaging is progressing across the globe:
- In December 2012, Australia became the first country to fully implement plain packaging.
- In 2015, Ireland, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and France all passed laws to implement plain packaging from May 2016.
- A number of countries are in advanced stages of considering adoption of plain packaging laws.
In its brochure calling for plain packaging, WHO covered the following chapters:
- What is plain packaging? Goals of plain packaging
- Evidence justifying plain packaging
- What should be done?
- Resisting interference from the tobacco industry.
Click here to read the full brochure on WHO website.
Australia… The first country to fully implement Plain Packaging
Australian officials announced that the nation’s daily smoking rate, among people aged 14 years and older, declined from 15.1% to 12.8% between 2010 and 2013. The drop in the smoking rate shows that the plain-packaging law enforced at the end of 2012 — as well as the 25% tax increase Australia instituted in 2010 — works. The Australian law requires tobacco products to be sold in drab packages with large graphic images of tobacco-related diseases and the brand name but without logos.
UAE: Raising Taxes, changing pictures
Raising taxes and changing the set of gory pictures on cigarette packs are among the steps that will soon be taken by the UAE to curb tobacco use in the country.
Ahead of World No Tobacco Day tomorrow, a senior official from the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention said the increased taxes will be implemented soon.
Philippines: Initiative to get strong backing from the government
In The Philippines, an anti-smoking group called on incoming president Rodrigo Duterte to back the international push for the adoption of plain and standardized packaging of tobacco products.
In a statement, New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP) president Emer Rojas said that given the political will of incoming president Rodrigo Duterte, they are confident that having plain packaging is highly possible in the country.
“Given the strong political will of incoming president Duterte to combat diseases and death, including cancer brought by smoking, there is no doubt that this initiative will get strong backing from the government,” said Rojas.
Seeing ugly pictures of the effects of smoking on different body organs might not make even a slight change in someone’s smoking habits, but it would surely make him/her think more thoroughly the next time he/she smokes a cigarette.
