Australia to have world's largest package health warnings
Monday, April 11, 2011
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
As part of the
Thrusday April 7 release of a draft plain packaging bill, the Australian
government also announced that it would be increasing the size of picture
warnings to 75% of the front and 90% of the back of cigarette packages, and a
comparable size for other tobacco
products.
This will result in Australia having
the largest cigarette package health warnings in the world, with an average of
82.5% of the front and back. Taking into account the proposed measures for
consultation in Australia and Canada, the new world rankings for size would
be as follows (ranked as an average of the package front and
back):
82.5% Australia (75% front, 90%
back) (proposal in consultation period)
80% Uruguay (80% front, 80%
back)
75% Canada (75% front, 75%
back) (proposal in consultation period)
65% Mauritius (60% front, 70%
back)
65% Mexico (30% front, 100%
back)
Australia has not yet announced the
content of its new picture warnings. The new size requirements are not
contained in bill released on April 7. The new size and content will be
implemented through a separate regulatory
mechanism.
Extracts from the consultation
document are below.
A hearty congratulations to
Australia for its extremely important and historic announcement on April 7
releasing draft legislation on plain packaging, and also for the announcement re
the world's largest package health warnings.
----------------------------------------------
Excerpt from Australian Government
Consultation document
http://yourhealth.gov.au/internet/yourhealth/publishing.nsf/...
Graphic Health Warnings
Alongside
the plain packaging measure, the Government announced that it would be moving to
update and expand the graphic health warnings on the packaging of tobacco
products.
Graphic
health warnings on tobacco packaging are currently mandated through the Trade Practices (Consumer Product Information
Standards) (Tobacco) Regulations 200417
under the Australian
Consumer Law in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 201018 (formerly the Trade Practices Act 1974). Since 1 March
2006, there has been a requirement that most Australian-manufactured and
imported tobacco product packaging must be printed with graphic health warnings.
[...]
In 2008, a
comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of the graphic health warnings was
undertaken19. The evaluation demonstrated that the
graphic health warnings had achieved their intended purpose by increasing
consumer knowledge of the health effects related to smoking, encouraging
cessation of smoking and discouraging smoking uptake or relapse.
However,
areas for improvement were identified. The image and text on the front of packs
was described by some as ‘too small’. The importance of regularly updating and
refreshing the health warnings to maintain effectiveness was also identified
with some indications that their impact may have been beginning to wear out. The
tobacco industry branding and use of colour was also thought to overpower the
warning on the front of packs.
The
Preventative Health Taskforce recommended that graphic health warnings be
regularly updated and substantially expanded.
The
Government is currently developing and testing new graphic health warnings for
introduction at the same time as plain packaging. As part of this, the graphic
health warnings will be expanded to cover 75 per cent of the front of cigarette
packaging. Warnings covering 90 per cent of the back of cigarette packaging and
the qualitative side message will remain. A comparable change will apply to
other tobacco products.
This change
will be implemented through the Australian
Consumer Law in consultation with State and Territory governments.
Source: Globalink posting from Rob Cunningham, Canada.
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