Cigarette packs to feature graphic images
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《英国医生杂志》
The Australian government is proposing that by mid-2005 every packet of cigarettes and tobacco sold there will feature graphic images of smoking related diseases over half the front and rear panels.
The proposals emulate those adopted in Canada, which introduced graphic warnings covering half each pack in January 2001, and Brazil, which introduced similar images in February 2002. Unveiling the proposed changes for public comment the parliamentary secretary for health, Trish Worth, pointed to the success of the changes in Canada, which have resulted in a 3% reduction in tobacco consumption.
Australians currently consume an estimated 26 billion cigarettes a year. Department of Health projections suggest that the proposed change to packaging could, on top of the current rate of decline, result in a halving in the volume of cigarette consumption by 2031. The tobacco industry has objected to the proposals.
A cost-benefit analysis for the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing on the proposed new regulation accepted that a 3% reduction in the consumption of tobacco was likely. It found that even if the change in packaging reduced tobacco consumption by only 1% the net benefit "would remain significantly positive."
Between 1989 and 2001 the percentage of adult smokers declined from 28% to 23%. The report noted that "recent market research has found that the impact of the current warnings is declining and that new warnings would be required to sustain an effective decline in tobacco consumption."
However, Ms Worth said that in a concession to the tobacco industry the original mid-2004 timetable for the change would be eased to mid-2005, to allow packaging suppliers to meet the new requirements.
While advocates of tobacco control have welcomed the proposed packaging changes, they are dismayed at the delayed implementation. "The claim that the tobacco companies?suppliers have to make big changes to printing equipment is silly . . . The tobacco companies have known for at least five years that there was going to be an update to the regulation, and they have been in negotiations with the government over it for the last two years," said Anne Jones, chief executive officer of Action on Smoking and Health in Australia.
Meanwhile, the Liberal and National Parties, which form the national coalition government, are under pressure to reject donations from the tobacco industry. The Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners have called on the government to back a private members?bill that would disqualify a political party from receiving public funding for elections if they accept donations from tobacco companies. The bill will be debated in the next sitting of the House of Representatives later this month.
Details of the proposals and the Cost-Benefit Analysis of Proposed New Health Warnings on Tobacco Products are available at www.treasury.gov.au(Canberra Bob Burton)
The proposals emulate those adopted in Canada, which introduced graphic warnings covering half each pack in January 2001, and Brazil, which introduced similar images in February 2002. Unveiling the proposed changes for public comment the parliamentary secretary for health, Trish Worth, pointed to the success of the changes in Canada, which have resulted in a 3% reduction in tobacco consumption.
Australians currently consume an estimated 26 billion cigarettes a year. Department of Health projections suggest that the proposed change to packaging could, on top of the current rate of decline, result in a halving in the volume of cigarette consumption by 2031. The tobacco industry has objected to the proposals.
A cost-benefit analysis for the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing on the proposed new regulation accepted that a 3% reduction in the consumption of tobacco was likely. It found that even if the change in packaging reduced tobacco consumption by only 1% the net benefit "would remain significantly positive."
Between 1989 and 2001 the percentage of adult smokers declined from 28% to 23%. The report noted that "recent market research has found that the impact of the current warnings is declining and that new warnings would be required to sustain an effective decline in tobacco consumption."
However, Ms Worth said that in a concession to the tobacco industry the original mid-2004 timetable for the change would be eased to mid-2005, to allow packaging suppliers to meet the new requirements.
While advocates of tobacco control have welcomed the proposed packaging changes, they are dismayed at the delayed implementation. "The claim that the tobacco companies?suppliers have to make big changes to printing equipment is silly . . . The tobacco companies have known for at least five years that there was going to be an update to the regulation, and they have been in negotiations with the government over it for the last two years," said Anne Jones, chief executive officer of Action on Smoking and Health in Australia.
Meanwhile, the Liberal and National Parties, which form the national coalition government, are under pressure to reject donations from the tobacco industry. The Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners have called on the government to back a private members?bill that would disqualify a political party from receiving public funding for elections if they accept donations from tobacco companies. The bill will be debated in the next sitting of the House of Representatives later this month.
Details of the proposals and the Cost-Benefit Analysis of Proposed New Health Warnings on Tobacco Products are available at www.treasury.gov.au(Canberra Bob Burton)