WHO throws its weight behind plain packaging
Tuesday, May 31, 2016 at 7:43 It's World No Tobacco Day today.
Promoted by the World Health Organisation, this annual event is "intended to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption around the globe".
Each year there's a theme. In 2014 it was 'Raise taxes on tobacco'. Last year it was 'Stop illicit trade of tobacco products' which was ironic given that raising taxes on tobacco fuels illicit trade.
This year WHO is calling on "all countries" to 'Get ready for plain packaging'. Brussels, naturally, is a focal point with not one but two events at the European Parliament.
'Plain-packaging to protect our youth: Progress made, challenges ahead' is a half-day conference hosted by the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the European Network for Smoking Prevention (ENSP).
That's followed, this evening, by a World No Tobacco Day cocktail reception.
The 2016 World No Tobacco Day reception celebrates the entry into force of the Tobacco Products Directive and the possibilities it has created for Member States to introduce plain packaging of tobacco products.
Hosted by Linda McAvan MEP it also features the "announcement and celebration of WHO World No Tobacco Day 2016 Awards" (see previous post).
By coincidence I shall be in Brussels this evening but I have other plans.
In the meantime click here to read an international coalition letter to Dr Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, director of WHO, opposing plain packaging.
It's signed by 47 organisations including Forest.
Reader Comments (4)
So the WHO throws is weight behind support for a policy that failed. The Australian plain pack experiment did not work and the tobacco controllers manipulated evidence to claim it did and then used the failed initiative as the rationale for expanding the bans elsewhere. More evidence that tobacco control is an ideological cult that needs to be restrained.
Hi Simon . Whats always puzzled me is , the "great and the good " used to say that images of diseased lungs etc on cigarette packs are a good idea because it will put people off smoking . Now , those same people are telling us that cigarette packs with no images at all will stop people smoking . Do you get the feeling these so called health professionals are flailing around in the dark . Personally I think no amount of tinkering with the packaging will change peoples smoking habit . Its as if they want to be seen to be doing something even if that something dosnt work .
Thanks again Simon for your excellent work .
Simon, 'plain' packaging is a misnomer. Branding (ie colours and logos) are being removed but picture warnings will remain. I agree though that public health is flailing around with little or no evidence to suggest such policies will work. Plain packaging itself is an indictment of graphic health warnings because it indicates the latter wasn't as successful as public health hoped it would be.
It seems they are taking the Rudyard Kipling approach : "if the natives don't understand, just shout louder."