Tobacco kills an increasing number of Australians every year. Given that smoking is a preventable cause of death, the Australian government has decided to act in order to reverse this trend. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd marked a step by announcing on 29 April 2010 that the country will mandate the plain packaging of cigarettes.

“Cigarettes are not cool, cigarettes kill people. Therefore the government makes no apology whatsoever for what it’s doing. The tobacco companies will hate this measure, they will oppose it, nonetheless we believe this and other measures help to reduce smoking” said Kevin Rudd, Australian Prime Minister, after having publicly presented the appearance that all cigarette packs will have by 1 July 2012.

Through this action, Australia marks a step by becoming the first country worldwide to mandate the plain packaging of cigarettes. The tobacco brand as well as the product name will appear in a standardised way and be limited to a small part at the bottom of the packet. The rest of the pack will illustrate the health damages caused by smoking cigarettes.

In addition to actions on packaging, the Australian government also announced a 25% tax increase on cigarettes by the end of April 2010. The amount collected, which represents $5 billion over four years, would be nationally invested in the health and hospital systems.

In Canada, health groups are also pushing to follow the Australian example and generalise plain packaging.

The Health Minister of France, Ms Roselyne Bachelot, recently announced that, from 20 April 2011, every cigarette packet will feature text warnings covering 30% of the pack. Additionally, a series of 14 health warnings has been selected from the EU database to appear on 40% of the pack. France will therefore become the sixth European Union country (36th worldwide) to make health pictorial warnings mandatory on cigarettes packets.

EPHA welcomes the Australian initiative and hopes that more countries will strengthen their tobacco-control legislations.

(Epha, 06/06/2010)