New Zealand Government has decided to bring in legislation and follow Australia's lead in compelling cigarette manufacturers to sell their products in plain packaging.
As part of the move, all cigarette packs and tobacco pouches will contain larger pictorial health warnings and be stripped of the marketing imagery used by tobacco companies to promote their products.
Designed to maximize the impact of the health warnings, the colors and design of the packs will be standardized in regulations, and tobacco brand names will have to be printed in standard type fonts and sizes.
Associate Minister of Health Hon Tariana Turia said the plain packaging move would make more explicit what tobacco is, a product that kills 5,000 New Zealanders annually.
"Currently the packaging does everything it can to attract consumers, and increase the perceived appeal and acceptability of smoking. The bright colours and other design elements divert people's attention away from the health warnings which tell the truth about just how deathly dangerous smoking is," Turia said.
The latest move is also expected to remove the last remaining trace of glamor from the deadly products.
The detailed policy including the size and content of health warnings will be developed by the Ministry of Health, and the legislation will be introduced to Parliament before the end of 2013.
