Charities call for plain packaging of tobacco products

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At the parliamentary launch of the campaign for plain packaging of tobacco products, charities Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), and the British Heart Foundation urged Britain to follow Australia's initiative and replace marketing on tobacco packaging with standardised plain packets.

The introduction of standardised plain packaging on cigarette boxes seeks to reduce the appeal of cigarettes to young people. According to research distributed by the Smokefree Action Coalition 340,000 children in the UK are tempted to try smoking each year.

Speaking at the meeting, chief executive of ASH, Deborah Arnott said:

"This is why Australia has decided to ban marketing packaging as of December 2012. It would be a great start for Britain to be the first European country to lead this initiative."

"This is the last area of marketing that is available to tobacco companies," said Stephen Williams, chair of the APPG on smoking and health.

The "branding effect" shows how different cigarette branding attracts different groups.

Cigarette packets on display at the meeting were varied in design; some replicated a camera-like gadget and were said to appeal to a young male audience. Other packets were shaped like lipstick or carried the Vogue branding, to appeal to a young female audience.

A survey of 2,700 smokers and non-smokers between the ages of 16 and 25, conducted by the British Heart Foundation, revealed that three-quarters think selling cigarettes in plain packs - with no colourful branding or logos, and larger health warnings – would make it easier for people to smoke less or quit altogether.

Responding to concerns from Unite the trade union, that the introduction of plain packaging would lead to a loss of jobs in the tobacco sector, Arnott maintained that "only 5,000 people” were still directly employed by cigarette companies in Britain.

According to Arnott, the fall in tobacco jobs that has been seen in the United Kingdom was not due to a decline in sales, but because the industry is exporting jobs to other countries, “so they can manufacture cigarettes at a lower cost".

John McElroy, councillor and independent retailer from Sunnyside Gateshead, rejected the claim that it is more difficult to sell a plain package of cigarettes than a branded package.

"At the moment it takes me 15 seconds to sell a pack of cigarettes; plain packs, no different, it will still take 15 seconds."

Fears that the smuggling of cigarettes would increase due to plain packaging being easier to counterfeit were addressed by Arnott, who said that "the size of the smuggled market has fallen year on year, from a 21 per cent market share in 2000 to only 10 per cent by 2009-10."