When the UK government's plans to introduce aversion packaging on cigarettes began its fight with Big Tobacco at the beginning of June, a battle broke out in Australia too. It took two weeks for the Australian government to quash it. By Candide McDonald.
In the UK, skirmishes continue. But by May next year, the UK may sell its cigarettes in drab brown packs with a matt finish and inside surfaces that are white or drab brown. The Department of Health has launched a second consultation, which is due to run until 7 August.
Text on packaging would be grey in a Helvetica typeface with specified maximum size, which has not yet been revealed. Where and how often brand and variant names appear, the shape of the pack, and how it is re-closed will be specified.
In its consultation paper, the UK government stated, “We propose implementing requirements for standardised packaging in May 2016 to coincide with the transposition deadline for the TPD to minimise burdens on business.”
The Consumer Packaging Manufacturers Alliance (CPMA) is already making its disapproval vocal, claiming that the measure would lead to a collapse in the value of a hi-tech packaging sector that is currently worth many hundreds of millions of pounds to the UK economy.
CPMA director Mike Ridgway stated, “Plain packaging would have a catastrophic effect on the packaging industry and its supply chain that currently employs over 60,000 people across the UK, from Broxtowe to Workington. Commoditising a whole product category would remove the need for a series of highly skilled printing and packaging techniques that currently support jobs and flourishing apprenticeship schemes...”
Meanwhile, on 30 June, The World Health Organisation announced its involvement in an undertaking with a number of countries across the Pacific that are considering introducing plain packaging for cigarettes.
WHO will join governments across the region in a major drive to make the Pacific tobacco free within 10 years. The project will be launched in Honiara in two weeks and plain packaging is among the tactics being considered. Others are increasing taxation on cigarettes to raise its prices. This has worked well in reducing smoking in the Cook Islands, where there are plans for further rises. WHO's plans also involve setting up services to help people quit.
The aversion packaging movement is growing in strength worldwide:
Indonesia, the country with the world's highest rate of male smokers, at 67%, and the second highest rate of smokers overall, made graphic photo warnings on cigarette packs mandatory on June 24. 40% of the cigarette pack must be covered with the images. It joins more than 40 other nations or territories that have adopted similar regulations in recent years.
Thailand will increase the percentage of the pack to be covered with graphic images from 55% to 85%, in September.
In the Philippines, graphic warning legislation was approved in June and awaits the president's signature. It requires 50% of the bottom of the pack to be covered by graphic warnings.
Graphic warnings have covered 80% of packs in Uruguay since 2010.
The US stands on its own limb. Its government backed down from a push to introduce graphic images in March 2013, after the tobacco industry sued. A Food and Drug Administration order to include the graphic labels was then blocked by an appeals court, which ruled that the photos violated First Amendment free speech protections.
In Australia, no cigarette brand logos are permitted. Graphic health warnings have been required on 75% of the front and 90% of the back of packs, since 2012.
