Yahoo – AFP, Pierre-Henry Deshayes with Nina Larson in Geneva, May 31, 2016
Oslo (AFP) - New Zealand and Norway became on Tuesday the latest countries to announce they will remove branding from cigarette packets, in a move hailed by the WHO as an effective way to cut smoking rates.
Plain packaging laws came into effect earlier this month in England and France, requiring cigarette boxes to be unbranded and carry health warnings (AFP Photo/Thomas Samson) |
Oslo (AFP) - New Zealand and Norway became on Tuesday the latest countries to announce they will remove branding from cigarette packets, in a move hailed by the WHO as an effective way to cut smoking rates.
The news
came the same day as WHO unveiled a report saying the drab packets plastered
with warnings and gruesome pictures helped shrink the number of smokers in
Australia, the first nation to impose such measures.
Plain
packaging, which removes what is seen as a powerful tool used to get young
people hooked on tobacco, "will save lives," he insisted.
According
to WHO, one person dies from tobacco-caused disease every six seconds,
amounting to nearly six million people each year -- a number expected to rise
to more than eight million by 2030.
In New
Zealand, associate Health Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga pointed out that "12 New
Zealanders die prematurely every day from smoking-related illnesses.
"Each
of these deaths is preventable," he stressed.
'Going global'
New Zealand
will introduce plain packaging on tobacco products,
selling them in drab boxes
plastered with health warnings and
gruesome pictures of smoking-related disease
(AFP Photo/Marty Melville)
|
'Going global'
In the new
report, the WHO said data from Australia, which introduced the so-called plain
packaging four years ago, showed the measure had a clear impact on the number
of habitual smokers in the country.
With
similar laws taking effect earlier this month in Britain and France, and a
range of other countries discussing following suit, WHO voiced hope the push to
remove logos and distinctive colours from cigarette packs is "going
global", despite strong opposition from the tobacco industry.
"Plain
packaging reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products," WHO chief
Margaret Chan said in a statement.
Imposing
neutral cigarette packs, she said, "kills the glamour, which is
appropriate for a product that kills people."
Smoking in
Australia has been steadily declining for years, but WHO said 0.55 points out
of a total 2.0-percentage point drop in the three years after the law was
introduced in December 2012 could be directly attributed to the neutral packaging.
That
equates to more than 108,000 people quitting, not relapsing or not starting to
smoke during the period, said the report, citing Australian statistics.
WHO said it
hoped the data would help inspire more countries to climb aboard.
The new packs sold in Australia, and being phased in Britain and France are intentionally ugly, covered with graphic health warnings, with no promotional information allowed and brand and product names displayed in standard colour and font size.
The new packs sold in Australia, and being phased in Britain and France are intentionally ugly, covered with graphic health warnings, with no promotional information allowed and brand and product names displayed in standard colour and font size.
"We
must protect children and teens from the temptation of tobacco," Norwegian
Health Minister Bent Hoie said at the launch of the WHO report in Oslo Tuesday.
He later
told Norwegian channel TV2 that he plans to have plain packets in place by
2017.
Big
Tobacco
The tobacco
industry fought particularly hard to block the introduction of plain packets,
and has mounted numerous legal challenges against countries seeking to impose
them.
New Zealand
first proposed plain packaging in 2013, but it was put on hold pending the
outcome of tobacco giant Philip Morris' legal action against the Australian
government's introduction of the packets a year earlier.
That
lawsuit failed last December, and tobacco giants Philip Morris International,
British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International
(JTI) also failed earlier this month to block the British legislation.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key admitted Tuesday the fact that so many countries were adopting the packaging had emboldened his government to ignore the threat of legal action from Big Tobacco.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key admitted Tuesday the fact that so many countries were adopting the packaging had emboldened his government to ignore the threat of legal action from Big Tobacco.
"They
may well take a case against the government, but the advice we have been
getting over time now has been that the risks of them being successful... is
reducing," he told reporters.
"The
industry fights hardest against the measures that are most effective,"
Douglas Bettcher, who heads WHO's non-communicable disease prevention unit,
told reporters in Geneva ahead of the report launch.
Plain
packaging, he said, is so effective because it "very clearly labels
tobacco for what it is: the only legally available product worldwide that when
used as intended, kills up to half of its users," he said.
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