UK: Standardised Cigarette Packs Urged

Source from:  London Evening Standard  05/08/2013

Health campaigners have written to the Prime Minister asking him to introduce standardised cigarette packs. 

The Smokefree Action Coalition said it was "extremely disappointed" to read reports suggesting that David Cameron has scrapped plans to force manufacturers to sell their tobacco products in plain packs.

Officials have been weighing up the move for more than a year and it was widely expected for the initiative to be announced during next week's Queen's speech. But The Sun reported that Mr Cameron has ordered the proposed law to be pulled from the speech on May 8.

The Smokefree Action Coalition, which is an alliance of more than 100 health organisations including leading charities, health workers' unions, royal colleges and campaign groups, said that to abandon the initiative would be "to miss a golden opportunity" to cut smoking rates.

The letter to Mr Cameron reads: "We are extremely disappointed to read reports in The Sun newspaper that, at your initiative, the Government has abandoned proposals for legislation requiring tobacco products to be sold in standardised packaging. Such a step would seriously undermine the Government's credibility on public health issues."

The letter - signed by groups including the Royal College of General Practitioners Cancer Research UK, the British Medical Council and Action on Smoking and Health - added: "We therefore hope very much that The Sun report will prove inaccurate and that this important public health measure will not simply be abandoned in the face of tobacco industry lobbying."

Last April, the Government launched a consultation on plans to introduce mandatory standardised packaging for tobacco products. Health experts have welcomed the proposal, but opponents claimed it would lead to increased smuggling and job losses.

Information generated by the consultation, which closed in August, is still being analysed by health officials.

In December, Australia became the first country in the world to put all tobacco products in uniform packs. Cigarette packets and other products are all sold in a standardised colour, with only the brand name and graphic warnings visible.

Simon Clark, director of the smokers' group Forest, said: "We're pleased that the Prime Minister has apparently ... listened to the hundreds of thousands of people who expressed their opposition to standardised packaging in the Government consultation." Enditem