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Tag: Plain Packaging

  • Plain Packaging Continues to Spread

    Plain Packaging Continues to Spread

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Legal requirements to sell tobacco products in generic, unbranded packaging continue to spread, according to a report released on Feb. 6 by the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS).

    The CCS report, titled Cigarette Package Health Warnings: International Status Report, details global progress on plain packaging, ranks 211 countries and territories on the size of their health warnings on cigarette packages and lists the countries and territories that now require graphic picture warnings.

    The report also features the new Canadian requirement for a warning on every individual cigarette. This world precedent setting measure will start to appear on cigarettes in Canada by April 2024. Australia is in progress to become the second country to adopt the measure.

    “There is a strong global trend for countries to implement plain packaging,” says Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst at the CCS, in a statement. “Australia was the first country to implement plain packaging in 2012, followed by France and the U.K. in 2016, and now more and more countries are implementing the measure. These developments are very encouraging as plain packaging is a key measure to protect youth and to reduce tobacco use.”

    There are now 25 countries and territories that have adopted plain packaging, up from nine countries in 2018 and 21 countries in 2021.

    The report reveals there are now 138 countries and territories that require picture health warnings on cigarette packages, an increase from 117 in 2018 and 134 in 2021. This represents 66.5 percent of the world’s population. Canada became the first country in the world to require picture health warnings in 2001.

    “There is continuing progress for countries to use graphic pictures on cigarette packages to show the lethal health effects of smoking,” says Cunningham. “It is extremely positive for global public health that more than 130 countries and territories have required picture health warnings and have increased warning size and that so many are moving toward plain packaging. The international trend will reduce global tobacco industry sales and will save lives lost to cancer and other tobacco-related diseases.”

    The release of the CCS report coincides with the 10th Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which takes place in Panama this week. The FCTC mandates that all parties require health warnings that cover at least 30 percent of the principal display areas and at least 50 percent of the display areas.

  • Oman Adopts Plain Packaging

    Oman Adopts Plain Packaging

    Photo: Chris

    The government of Oman will require tobacco companies to sell their products in generic packaging, reports Muscat Daily

    The Sultanate has become the second country  in the region, after Saudi Arabia, to adopt the measure.

    The World Health Organization office for the Eastern Mediterranean welcomed Oman’s action, describing it as “significant and pioneering.”

     According to the health body, the step is consistent with the obligations of the states that are party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

    The move is also in line with the sultanate’s plans to achieve a 30 percent reduction in tobacco consumption by 2025.

    Under the new rules, health warnings must cover at least 65 percent of tobacco packaging, while the brand name must be printed in a standardized font and color.

  • Tobacco Packaging Innovations Under Fire

    Tobacco Packaging Innovations Under Fire

    Image: Tobacco Reporter archive

    The tobacco industry has been developing innovative packaging to minimize the impact of regulatory requirements such as graphic health warnings, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, according to a study published in BMJ Innovations.

    Mounting restrictions on tobacco advertising have made the tobacco pack an increasingly important tool for the industry to communicate with its customers. Cigarette packs in effect act as miniature billboards for the product.

    Confronted with requirements to print large health warning labels that leave less space for branding, tobacco companies have found ways to maximize and even increase the space available for marketing on packs, according to the study’s authors. Examples include inserts, sliding flip tops and butterfly panels exposing additional surfaces upon opening.

    These surfaces often feature bright colors and patterns, intricate imagery, shiny and textured surfaces, and holograms to appeal to customers, according to the authors. The extra “real estate” can be used to include information about contests or marketing appeals and QR codes that lead current and potential smokers to websites that include engagement strategies.

    In addition to examples of packaging innovations—which are generally legal—the authors also cite evidence of explicit manipulation of health warnings. Smokeless tobacco packs purchased in India in 2017, for example, featured blurred, stretched and tinted labels. Health warning labels on cigarette packs purchased in Pakistan in 2019 and 2020 were tinted, faded, blurred. In some instances, the background color was changed and the size of throat cancer included in the image was reduced.

    The authors did not consider the possibility that some distortions might be a result of poor printing quality rather than deliberate manipulation.

    To prevent the industry from developing packaging that reduces the impact of health warnings, the researchers urged lawmakers to require standardized tobacco packs in their jurisdictions.

  • Cote d’Ivoire Mandates Plain Tobacco Packs

    Cote d’Ivoire Mandates Plain Tobacco Packs

    Photo: alexlmx

    Cote d’Ivoire has become the first country in Africa to require plain packaging on tobacco products, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK).

    Pioneered in Australia, plain packaging legislation requires that cigarettes be sold in generic, uniform packaging free of colorful branding or designs. When implemented in concert with smoke-free public places, restrictions on tobacco advertising, increased tobacco taxes and warning labels on tobacco products, plain packaging is a powerful public health tool, according to anti-smoking activists.

    To reduce the appeal of tobacco products, more than 20 countries have adopted plain packaging as part of a suite of tobacco control measures aimed at driving down smoking rates and preventing young people from starting to smoke.

    In 2015, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced the creation of the Anti-Tobacco Trade Litigation Fund, which provides on-request support to low-income and middle-income countries that have been sued by tobacco companies opposed to plain packaging laws.

    “The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids congratulates Cote d’Ivoire on bringing plain packaging to Africa where strong action is needed to prevent a tobacco epidemic—and stands ready to support this life-saving public health measure,” wrote Bintou Camara Biyeki, director of Africa programs at the CTFK.