Australia leads, Ireland must follow

The Irish Cancer Society welcomes decision by Australian courts in relation to cigarette packaging.

The Irish Cancer Society has warmly welcomed the decision by the Australian High Court to approve the plain packaging of cigarettes and urged the Irish Government to follow its example as soon as possible.

The packaging of cigarettes is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to the tobacco industry and is being used to entice children to start smoking and to glamorise it amongst young women. In Ireland, the rate of lung cancer has now exceeded the rate of breast cancer in women.

Cigarettes being sold in plain packaging will help prevent all smokers - but particularly children - from being influenced by tobacco advertising. The landmark case has been watched closely by countries around the world and paves the way for the extension of tobacco regulation across the globe.

“Smoking in Ireland has reached a crisis point,” says Ms. Kathleen O’Meara, Head of Advocacy and Communications at the Irish Cancer Society. “One way to discourage young people from starting to smoke is to make it unattractive. At a recent Irish Cancer Society conference, we international experts said that tobacco companies are investing significant resources to package cigarettes in a way that appeals particularly to young people and women. Since the introduction of restrictions on advertising and the display of cigarettes in shops, we have seen slim, colourful, attractive packaging arrive on the Irish market. The eye-catching designs mask a sinister objective of tobacco companies - to attract new smokers. Many of these are children.

“Tobacco companies are focused on attempting to make smoking glamorous and from research undertaken by the Australian Government and others, we know that plain packaging is an effective way to frustrate these efforts,” continued Ms. O’Meara. “No matter what is the response of the tobacco industry to this ruling in Australia, there can be simply no justification for allowing the promotion of a product that kills its users. If we are to seriously tackle the smoking rate in Ireland, we have to follow Australia’s lead and introduce plain packaging legislation.”

Research has found that plain packaging is less attractive to young people, improves the effectiveness of health warnings, reduces mistaken beliefs that some brands are ‘safer’ than others and is likely to reduce smoking uptake amongst children and young people.

Plain packaging means that cigarette packs will no longer be able to carry tobacco industry logos, brand imagery, colours or any promotional text, other than the brand and product names in a standard colour, position, font style and size.