Category: Packaging

Looming health concerns
The fundamental right to health in the UK will be lost if the government proceeds with its plan not to convert the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights into UK law, as announced in the white paper on the Great Repeal Bill, according to an editorial in the British Medical Journal by Peter Roderick and Allyson M. Pollock
‘The value of this charter was shown last year, in both EU and UK courts, when the tobacco industry unsuccessfully challenged the new rules on plain packaging of cigarettes,’ the editorial said.
‘One of the industry’s arguments was that the rules violated its rights. Both the EU Court of Justice and the High Court in London used the right to health in article 35 of the charter as a counter weight to that argument.
‘Mr Justice Green made the strongest judicial statement yet in the UK on this critical point: [Tobacco regulations] are health measures. This is an area of legislative activity to which immense importance is attached and legislatures and decision makers are habitually accorded a wide margin of appreciation. Health is recognized as a fundamental right. Article 35 of the Fundamental Charter identifies access to health care as a fundamental right but also [original emphasis] makes a statement as to the weight to be attached to this right, namely “high.”‘
The editorial said that the government’s proposal not to maintain the fundamental rights charter meant that after Brexit it would not be possible for a UK judge to use article 35 or other charter rights when interpreting UK laws that had derived from the EU. ‘These include laws to protect public health such as on pesticide residues in food, health and safety at work, management and disposal of hazardous substances, regulation of medicinal products, and air and water quality,’ it said. ‘The change will considerably weaken the ability of judges in future to uphold the law if it is challenged by industry in the courts.’
The editorial is at: http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2013.
May 5, 2017
Plain packs persuasive
Standardized cigarette packaging could persuade 300,000 people in the UK to quit smoking, according to a story in The Guardian citing a review by scientists at the independent health research organization Cochrane.
The 300,000 estimate is based on the experience in Australia, the first country to introduce standardized packaging, being repeated in the UK.
Standardised cigarette packaging will be compulsory in the UK from May20.
The Guardian story said that the review of the impact of standardized packaging ‘around the world’ had found that it does affect the behaviour of smokers.
‘The Cochrane reviewers found 51 studies that looked at standardized packaging and its impact on smokers, but only one country had implemented the rule fully at the time,’ the Guardian story said. ‘Australia brought in plain packs in 2012.
‘Analysing the evidence from Australia, the team found a reduction in smoking of 0.5 percent up to one year after the policy was introduced. According to the Australian government, that translates to 100,000 people no longer smoking. The decline was attributable specifically to plain packaging, after taking into account the continuing drop in the numbers of smokers caused by other tobacco control measures.’
Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce of the Cochrane tobacco addiction group at Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences said: “We are not able to say for sure what the impact would be in the UK, but if the same magnitude of decrease was seen in the UK as was observed in Australia, this would translate to roughly 300,000 fewer smokers following the implementation of standardized packaging.”
The full story is at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/27/plain-cigarette-packaging-could-drive-300000-britons-to-quit-smoking.
April 28, 2017
Graphic health warnings
Laos’ Ministry of Health has said that, as of May 1, all domestic and imported cigarette packs must carry graphic health warnings ‘covering 75 percent of the packaging’, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.
“If we find violations of this regulation, the violators will be warned, have their products seized, fined or have their business license suspended,” Phat Keungsaneth, head of the Secretariat to the National Tobacco Control Committee, said yesterday.
“We expect that in three months, cigarette products circulated in the market that are yet to be labeled with health warnings will disappear and [be] replaced with those with pictorial warnings affixed on the packaging.”
Phat said other countries that had signed the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control had introduced such warnings.
The move would promote public awareness of health hazards and the menace of smoking cigarettes and inhaling second-hand smoke.
“These efforts will help the government inspect and prevent smuggled cigarettes and promote health protection among the general public, especially from non-communicable diseases,” Phat reportedly told the Lao News Agency.
April 28, 2017
Losing the packaging fight
The Intellectual Property (IP) sector is fighting a losing battle against standardized packaging, according to 93 percent of readers who responded to a World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) survey.
In a note posted on its website, WIPR said that last week it had noted that: ‘The UK Supreme Court refused to allow an appeal from the tobacco industry, in a final domestic decision on plain packaging’. It had then asked: ‘Is the IP sector fighting a losing battle against standardized packaging?’
One reader replied that health policy would trump IP interests on the issue of tobacco standardized packaging, while another reader claimed that the tobacco industry, rather than the IP sector, was losing the battle.
‘This is excellent news,’ one respondent said. ‘Public health considerations should always trump private profit considerations. Even if there is the slightest chance that plain packaging reduces rates of smoking and the inevitable resulting deaths, then it should absolutely be mandatory.’
The WIPR story is at: http://www.worldipreview.com/news/wipr-survey-ip-sector-fighting-losing-battle-against-plain-packaging-13857
April 26, 2017
Plain packs appeal disallowed
All cigarettes in the UK will have to be sold in standardized packaging from next month after the country’s supreme court refused permission for the tobacco industry to appeal against laws requiring the use of such packaging, according to a story by Chris Johnston for The Guardian.
The Department of Health said that following the supreme court’s ruling the industry had no further recourse to domestic legal challenges, meaning that rules governing standardized packaging of cigarettes would come into force on May 20.
The rules requiring standardized tobacco packaging were introduced in May 2016.
Tobacco companies went to the supreme court after the court of appeal in November rejected their attempt to prevent the introduction of standardized tobacco packaging.
British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Japan Tobacco International (JTI) and Philip Morris International claimed that the packaging law would infringed their human and intellectual property rights.
The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, welcomed the supreme court’s decision, saying: “Standardised packaging will cut smoking rates and reduce suffering, disease and avoidable deaths”.
The Guardian story is at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/11/uk-supreme-court-denies-tobacco-firms-permission-for-plain-packaging-appeal.
April 13, 2017
Tobacco proposal like the curate’s egg
Photo by MacBeales
The packaging and product standardization aspects of the Canadian federal government’s proposal to amend certain acts include unlawful and flawed positions, and will be counterproductive in achieving its objectives, Imperial Tobacco Canada said in its submission to the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology.
Bill S-5, which would amend the Tobacco Act and the Non-Smokers’ Health Act and would make consequential amendments to other acts, was introduced in the Senate in November. It combines two public policy initiatives in one piece of legislation: the legislative framework for vaping products, and the further regulation of tobacco products through provisions enabling the introduction of packaging and cigarette standardization.
“While we support the government’s public health objectives related to reducing the harm of cigarette consumption, we believe measures such as packaging and product standardization are counterproductive to the government’s stated objectives,” said Eric Gagnon, head of corporate and external affairs. “These measures represent an unprecedented assault on commercial expression and wholesale expropriation of an industry’s brands and trademarks that cannot be justified.”
In a press note, Imperial said there was no reliable evidence that standardized packaging would work and that such measures had failed to deliver any of the anticipated benefits in Australia, the only country that had fully implemented standardized packaging for any substantial length of time.
‘Instead the policy has led to unintended consequences that are adversely impacting the public, businesses and government,’ the note said.
‘There is no reason to believe that the result would be any different in Canada, especially given the nature and magnitude of its existing illicit tobacco product problems.
‘Through the standardization measures, Health Canada will provide a template for organized crime to flood the Canadian market with counterfeit products – and consumers, retailers and law enforcement will have no ability to distinguish legal from illegal products.’
But Imperial said that with respect to vaping products, it supported the framework introduced by the government in Bill S-5, with some notable exceptions related to discouraging their promotion through reference to harm reduction.
It urged prompt enactment of appropriate regulations governing the manufacture of these products.
“Contrary to packaging and product standardization, there is a wealth of evidence suggesting that using e-cigarettes as an alternative to conventional cigarettes can have an impact on public health,” said Gagnon. “The proposed legislation must allow manufacturers and retailers the ability to communicate to consumers reliable substantiated evidence about those new products and their reduced risk and harm reduction potential.”
Imperial said that if the focus was truly on public health, then the government should make the vaping products’ provisions of Bill S-5 the priority. “If the government is committed to improving public health, it would acknowledge the harm reduction potential of vaping products as an alternative to conventional cigarettes, and prioritize the introduction of clear regulations around these products,” said Gagnon.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) has come out in support of Bill S-5. Representatives of the CVA were said to have underscored the importance of including electronic-cigarette-specific amendments to the bill during a presentation before the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology.
The CVA quoted Senator Chantal Petitclerc, the sponsor of the bill, as saying that it “strikes a balance between the harms from vaping products if they entice youth to develop a nicotine addiction and the public health benefit if they contribute to reducing tobacco-related death and disease”.
“This is why the government is proposing a flexible regime, one that can be adjusted as the science on vaping products develops,” he said.
The CVA said that it endorsed the government’s science-based approach.
CVA’s sister organization, the Electronic Cigarette Trade Association of Canada, also made a presentation to the Senate committee.
April 7, 2017
€100 million in unintended consequences
France – presumably in the form of French taxpayers – is having to pay about €100 million to tobacconists to buy up unsold branded tobacco packs that do not comply with a law on standardized tobacco packaging, according to a story in The Local France.
When France made the switch to standardized tobacco packaging in January, the government was forced to buy the branded packaging that tobacconists had not sold.
This stock amounted to 250 tonnes of branded products, made up of 15 million cigarette packs and loose tobacco packs that had been rendered unusable by the law.
The law bans eye-catching branding and logos, and requires that packs are of a uniform size and color. Brand names remain, but appear in a small, uniform font.
The process of compensating retailers was complicated by the fact that the authorities decided that the tobacconists needed to provide information about where they had purchased their cigarettes. This was reportedly because some cigarette sellers allegedly tried to cheat the system by sending in cigarettes that had been smuggled from elsewhere.
Some 40 workers with the cigarette distributor Logista are sorting through the cigarettes and paying for them in a process that is expected to last until May. Logista will then be reimbursed by the government, which will in turn get rid of the 15 million packs by burning them.
April 7, 2017
Sustainable packaging valued
A new independent study by Smithers Pira amongst major brand owners and retailers in five key European markets has shown resounding evidence of the importance of sustainability in packaging, according to a press note from Pro Carton, which commissioned the study.
Folding cartons were perceived as the most sustainable packaging but there was said to be confusion about the issue of the circular economy and what makes packaging sustainable.
“It is interesting to see how the environmental benefits of cartonboard packaging have been perceived by our target audiences and I am delighted to note that our strengths of renewability and recyclability are now well appreciated”, said Tony Hitchin, general manager of Pro Carton.
The study, which was conducted in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, was aimed at investigating the views and attitudes amongst major European brand owners and retailers in respect of sustainability in packaging and its importance to the retail business. The main fieldwork for the project comprised a series of 100 in-depth telephone interviews with leading decision makers.
Ninety-six percent of respondents said that the use of sustainable packaging was important to their business, and 52 percent said that it was either ‘very important’ or ‘critical’.
“The top criteria for packaging to be considered ‘sustainable’ were (i) that it is a recyclable material (29.2 percent), (ii) that it uses renewable & abundant materials (19.6 percent), (iii) that it uses minimal lightweight materials (15.5 percent), (iv) that is has a low environmental footprint (8.2 percent) and (v) that it is biodegradable or compostable (5.1 percent)”, Adam Page, global director reports and consultancy, Smithers Pira, was quoted as saying.
A summary of the study The Importance of Sustainability in Packaging can be found at: www.procarton.com.
April 6, 2017
India has new health warnings
Photo by buggolo
Since April 1, Indian tobacco manufacturers have been required to include a new set of graphic health warnings on their packaging, according to a story by India TV.
Under new Health Ministry rules, manufacturers are required to display graphic pictures of throat cancer on cigarette and bidi packs and pictures of mouth cancer on chewing tobacco packs.
India TV reported that, according to the Health Ministry’s website, the government notified new health warnings on October 15, 2014, and issued a notification dated September 24, 2015, for the mandatory display of new health warnings covering 85 percent of the principal display areas on all tobacco products from April 1, 2016.
‘As per rules, during the rotation period of 24 months, two images of specified health warnings as notified in the schedule, shall be displayed on all tobacco product packages and each of the images shall appear consecutively on the package with an interregnum period of 12 months,’ the notice said.
‘Further as per notification dated March 24, 2017, all tobacco products manufactured on or after April 1, 2017, shall display the second image of specified health warning.’
In fact, the introduction of the 85 percent health warnings was a chaotic affair that resulted in manufacturers having to shut down their operations because of uncertainty surrounding the timing of the introduction of the warnings.
April 5, 2017
Less than graphic warnings
Photo by BatulTheGreat
One year after rules on the printing of graphic health warnings on tobacco packs became mandatory, a study in Bangladesh has found that most tobacco companies are still flouting the law, according to a bdnews24.com story.
The tobacco industry had rather resorted to fresh tactics to undermine the implementation of the law, said anti-tobacco group Progga, which was involved in the study.
“The government needs to strengthen the National Tobacco Control Cell so that they can monitor the market effectively,” Progga executive director ABM Zubair told bdnews24.com.
The law on graphic health warnings was passed in parliament in April 2013, but it took 22 months to adopt the implementation rules mostly due to industry pressure. Then again, it took a year to implement the graphic health warnings.
The law came into force on March 19 last year.
The study found that 51 percent of tobacco products did not obey the law, and that the overwhelming number of tobacco producers were selling products that didn’t fully comply with the graphic health warning guidelines.
Zubair said the health ministry had provided seven rules on the printing of the warnings and not obeying any one of them could lessen the impact.
For example, he said, the picture had to be clear so that the devastating images of injuries could draw attention to all, even those who could not read. “But if you print a grainy photo, then they will not understand it,” he said. “It will reduce the impact”.
Zubair said the manufacturers of local hand-rolled cigarettes such as bidis and smokeless tobacco such as ‘jorda’, which were packed in round or cylindrical packs, were taking advantage of the fact that pictures could not be displayed properly on such packs.
March 20, 2017