Australian Economists Call For Streamlined Cigarette Prices

Source from:  Vapinvgpost 12/03/2020

In Australia, brands’ logos on cigarette packets have been replaced by plain packaging and graphic images illustrating the dangers of smoking, from as far back as 2012.

Australia was the first country that adopted this strategy and 2017 data from the Australian Secondary Student’s Alcohol and Drug Survey had shown that from 2011 to 2014 the number of 12 to 17 year-old students who had never smoked, increased from 77.4% to 80.5%.

Moreover, smoking rates for people aged 14 and above, had also dropped from 15.1% to 12.8% between 2010-13, which resulted in 200,000 less smokers in this age group.

Between 2013 and 2016 smoking rates had gone back up by 21,000

However, further data released in the same year, sadly indicated that in the years that followed, smoking rates started increasing again. Figures obtained from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare had indicated that the rates had risen by over 21,000 to 2.4 million, between 2013 and 2016.

“For the first time ever, there has been no statistically significant reduction in the smoking rate, and an increase in the number of smokers in Australia,” said Colin Mendelsohn, a public health expert from the University of New South Wales, whilst pointing out that for the first time, the smoking rates in Australia had exceeded those in the US. “This is despite plain packaging and the most expensive cigarette prices in the world.”