Anti smoking groups in New Zealand are lobbying with the government to speed up the procedure for passing plain tobacco packaging legislation.
Last week, Ireland successfully passed the plain tobacco packaging legislation, becoming the first country in the European Union (EU).
It is also the second country in the world after Australia to have such a law in place. Britain is also said to be on the way to passing a similar law.
While New Zealand had been one of the earliest nations to show an interest towards implementing plain packaging, the procedure had come to a stop due to fears of an expensive legal battle with the tobacco industry.
However, encouraged by the decrease in the number of smokers in Australia following the implementation of plain packaging, national support partner, the Maori Party and lobby group Action on Smoking on Health (Ash) have now urged the government to implement a packaging law immediately.
Once standardised packaging is put into practice, tobacco makers would need to remove all brand imagery and colours from the packets.
The New Zealand Herald quoted public health expert Robert Beaglehole, a University of Auckland emeritus professor as saying: "The Australian evidence shows standardised packaging of cigarettes has had an immense impact on smoking and has worked almost like a vaccine against tobacco use in children and young people."
A UMR survey in New Zealand for Ash last year had revealed that 75% people in the country support plain packs while 55% smokers were also said to support plain packaging if there was evidence they were less attractive than branded packs to young people.
Image: Australia's successful plain tobacco packaging has encuoraged New Zealand to urge its government to pass the plain packaging legislation. Photo: courtesy of hinnamsaisuy / freedigitalphotos.net.
