Comment from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH):
The tobacco industry suffered a "decisive" political defeat today, as the House of Lords joined the House of Commons in voting for the standardised ("plain") packaging of cigarettes and other tobacco products. The regulations under the Children and Families Act were passed without a division. The UK now joins Australia and the Republic of Ireland in introducing the new policy. Standardised ("plain") packaging will be introduced at the same time as the EU Tobacco Products Directive measures on packaging and labelling, on 20th May 2016. [1] Standardised packaging will help protect the next generation of children and young people from starting to smoke. Two thirds of current smokers started when children, and half all lifetime smokers will die from smoking related disease.
The tobacco industry has threatened national and international legal action against the UK Government, but these legal challenges are considered likely to fail. The tobacco industry has waged an expensive but unsuccessful legal campaign against the Australian legislation. In August 2012, Australia's High Court dismissed constitutional challenges brought by tobacco companies, awarding costs in favour of the Australian Government. The industry is encouraging further challenges from Governments through the World Trade Organisation and under the Australia - Hong Kong Bilateral Investment Treaty, but these are also considered likely to fail. [2]
Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive of health charity ASH said:
"This is a decisive moment in the long and patient struggle to reduce, and then end, the horrors that the tobacco industry has brought to our country and to the rest of the world. Today we should remember the millions of people who have died too young from diseases caused by smoking, and the families and friends they left behind. And we should resolve for good and all that this misery must not be inherited by our children."
References:
[1] Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2015/9780111129876/pdfs/ukdsi_9780111129876_en.pdf An image of what a standardised cigarette pack might look like is included in Appendix C of the Government's consultation document: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/standardised-packaging-of-tobacco-products-draft-regulations
[2] http://www.ash.org.uk/media-room/press-releases/:standardised-packaging-tobacco-industry-claims-for-compensation-blown-out-of-the-waterfor UK legal opinion, and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19264245 for failed tobacco industry case in Australia. Also see https://www.cancervic.org.au/plainfacts/browse.asp?ContainerID=legalchallenges for opinion on international legal challenge.
Response from the British Lung Foundation:
Dr Penny Woods, Chief Executive of the British Lung Foundation, said:
"This is an immense triumph. Today parliamentarians stuck to their guns - despite the desperate efforts of tobacco lobbyists - in the name of the 200,000 children in this country who are every year enticed to take up smoking. Having introduced standardised tobacco packaging, the UK can stand tall as a world leader in promoting public health."
Response from the British Heart Foundation:
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) says that current cigarette packs will be "unrecognisable to the next generation of children" following today's vote by the House of Lords to introduce standardised packaging.
MPs voted last week to approve regulations on standardised tobacco packaging and following today's vote the law will come into force in May 2016.
The new legislation will see tobacco products stripped of their colourful packaging in a bid to prevent future generations from taking up smoking.
The introduction of standardised packaging will coincide with other measures which come from the European Tobacco Products Directive.
From May next year, the size of health warnings on packs will be increased, 'slim' cigarettes will be outlawed and cigarettes will only be sold in packs of 20.
Simon Gillespie, Chief Executive at the British Heart Foundation, said: "This clampdown on tobacco packaging means that today's children have a much better chance of not smoking.
"Cigarette packs that are plastered in colourful, eye-catching advertising will soon be condemned to history and completely unrecognisable to the next generation of children.
"With less attractive packaging and larger health warnings, it will be far more difficult for cigarette manufacturers to avoid the fact that smoking kills."
There are nearly ten million adults smokers in the UK, almost one-fifth of the adult population. Smoking causes around 100,000 deaths every year, with an estimated 22,000 attributed to cardiovascular conditions[1].
Smokers are almost twice as likely to have a heart attack compared with people who have never smoked[2].
The BHF has been calling on the Government to introduce standardised packaging in the UK and believe that it will give health warnings on packs more impact.
Standardised tobacco packaging was introduced in Australia in December 2012. Research[3] commissioned by the BHF shows the new policy has made tobacco products less attractive to smokers and ex-smokers in Australia, and made health warnings on packaging more noticeable.
Smoking rates in Australia plummeted to a record new low between 2010 and 2013. Now just 13% of people aged over 14 are daily smokers[4].
References:
[1] BHF UK estimate based on Health and Social Care Information Centre statistics on smoking 2014.
[2] Smoking and risk of myocardial infarction in women and men: longitudinal population study. Eva Prescott et al. Published in 1998 in the BMJ.
[3] British Heart Foundation and the ITC Project. Standardised packaging for tobacco products: Recent evidence from Australia and United Kingdom. December 2014.
[4] National Drugs Strategy Household Surveys 2013.