(English) Plain cigarette packaging likely to snowball globally

One of Australia’s leading anti-smoking campaigners says a “snowball” effect is likely to see plain packaging for cigarettes introduced in a number of new countries over the next decade, after tobacco company Philip Morris lost a court case challenging Australia’s strict packaging laws.
The Singapore-based Permanent Court of Arbitration declined on jurisdictional grounds to allow the company’s case to proceed against the Australian government’s plain packaging laws, which were passed in 2011 to curb smoking rates.
Under the Australian laws, the first of their kind, no branding is allowed on cigarette packages and retailers must store tobacco products behind blank screens or cabinets. In addition, cigarette packages in Australia also show large graphic warnings of the possible health effects of smoking. Public Health Association of Australia spokesman Mike Daube, who chaired the government committee which recommended plain packaging, said the Singapore court’s decision was a major blow to “Big Tobacco”.
“People who work in tobacco talk about the scream test – the louder the tobacco industry screams the more you know you are on the right track,” he said.
“The tobacco industry’s campaign against plain packaging in Australia is more ferocious than anything I have seen in the 40 years I have been working in this area.
“They have fought it in the media, they have fought it in parliament, they have fought it in the courts – and they have lost all of the way through.”
Daube told that he expected to see the success of Australia’s policy – which researchers say has led to a reduction in smoking rates and the volume of tobacco sold – cause a “snowball effect”, encouraging other nations to implement similar laws.
Plain tobacco packaging is currently being introduced in the UK and Ireland, while a number of other countries are also considering legislative changes.
“Australia is showing that you can beat Big Tobacco,” Daube said.
“What we are now seeing, and this often happens in public health, is that once one country successfully implements change, other countries follow. There is a leap frog effect.
“It’s going to be tough, because the industry is desperate for new markets, but I think we will see plain packaging in many more countries over the next decade.”