UK: Cameron Ditches Plan Designed to Deter Young People from Smoking

Source from:  The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday (uk)  05/08/2013

•Prime Minister ditches plan to copy Australia's laws
•Legislation will not be included in the Queen's Speech next week
•Health campaigners express dismay at the omission

Laws forcing tobacco firms to sell cigarettes in plain packaging have been ditched, government sources said today.

Health campaigners demanded the new rules to deter young people from starting smoking.

But David Cameron has ordered ministers to pull the idea from next week's Queen's Speech.

The plain packaging idea comes from Australia, the country where it was first tried out.

Cigarettes there have to be in a drab olive-coloured packaging, and the brand name is in a uniform typeface. The packets are also adorned with graphic images of the effects of lung cancer.

A Downing Street source said: "We are still waiting to see how it works in Australia before deciding what to do. There are no plans to introduce it now."

The Prime Minister wants minister to focus on economic growth, tackling immigration and reforming welfare.

But health campaigners expressed their dismay that the idea has been shelved.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the campaign group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: "For a Whitehall source to say that improving public health and reducing premature mortality is no longer one of the Government's key purposes is shocking."

"Smoking remains the major preventable cause of death and disability and measures to reduce smoking prevalence are popular and effective. Over 60 per cent of the public support standard packaging for cigarette packs".　

Last April, the Government launched a consultation on plans to introduce mandatory standardised packaging for tobacco products.

Opponents claimed the plan would lead to increased smuggling and job losses.

The government has not yet publicly responded to the consultation, which closed in August.

Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, added: "Given the public health minister herself has publicly acknowledged that cigarette packaging encourages young people to start smoking, it is bewildering that the Government are still allowing this by refusing to introduce standardised packaging."

However Simon Clark, director of the smokers group Forest, said: "We welcome the news, if it's true."

"Plain packaging has nothing to do with health."

"There is no evidence that it would make any difference to youth smoking rates but it could do enormous harm to small businesses, especially in the packaging industry, and help drive illicit trade.

"We're pleased that the Prime Minister has apparently recognised this and has listened to the hundreds of thousands of people who expressed their opposition to standardised packaging in the Government consultation."

Labour's shadow public health minister Diane Abbott said: "It's clear the Government has given in to their friends in 'Big Tobacco", and that doing the right thing isn't their priority. It's like they've given up on trying to improve public health now.

"Smoking remains the major preventable cause of death and disability, so David Cameron needs to explain why he's letting the general public down like this".　

Cancer Research UK said it was "extremely concerned".

Sarah Woolnough, executive director of policy and information, said: "If The Sun story is true, we're "We urge the Government not to waste the chance to protect the health of future generations.

"Slickly designed tobacco packaging tempts children towards this fatal habit. Over 200,000 children take up smoking every year and one in two long-term smokers are killed by their addiction.

"Plain packaging won't stop everyone from smoking but it will give millions of children one less reason to start. We must put the health of children ahead of the profits of the tobacco industry." Enditem