Health Secretary says plain packaging for cigarettes could be an important public health measure and discourage children from smoking
Tobacco manufacturers could be forced to sell cigarettes in plain packaging under proposals being looked at by the Department of Health. It believes the move could be particularly effective at deterring children from buying them.It is one of a series of measures being examined to further reduce the number of people who smoke and preventing young people from taking up the habit.
‘Silent salesman’
The measure would mean that only basic information and warnings about the dangers of smoking would appear on cigarette packaging. “The evidence is clear that packaging helps to recruit smokers, so it makes sense to consider having less attractive packaging,” says Health Secretary Andrew Lansley in an emailed statement. “It's wrong that children are being attracted to smoke by glitzy designs on packets.”The government is currently looking at a number of options for how tobacco should be displayed in shops, including getting retailers to put displays under the counter next year so that they are not visible to children. The Department of Health says no decision has yet been taken and that they want to reduce smoking without harming businesses.
Action on Smoking and Health says it wants to see both the plain packaging and the display ban implemented. It regards colourful cigarette packs as ‘silent salesman’ for tobacco firms. “Industry marketing men have become increasingly pushy with pack design, making it a 21st Century billboard, identifying this brand as ‘cool’, that brand is ‘feminine’, says Martin Dockrell, ASH’s director of policy and research in an email. “That is why it is so important to end the lavish displays behind the sweets in shops but it cannot be a question of one or the other. If the effect of this move was to kick the display ban into the long grass, it would backfire horribly on the Government.”
White paper
Lansley says the government will act to reduce the deaths caused by smoking and cut the burden on the NHS. “We will shortly set out a radical new approach to public health in a White Paper. We want to go further and faster in improving the health of the nation based firmly on doing what the evidence tells us works,” he says.The British Medical Association has welcomed the latest initiative. A spokesman said in an emailed statement: “There is clear evidence that young people find branded packaging appealing. And we know that the tobacco industry spends huge amounts on this clever marketing to enhance their brands and increase sales.
