Australia’s current national smoking rate sits at 16 per cent for men and 12 per cent for women, with daily smoking at an all-time low of 11.15 per cent for Aussies aged 14 and over. Taxing tobacco products remains the most important factor in driving down smoking rates, researchers have reiterated after a controversial paper was released that suggested Australia’s plain packaging had done nothing to curb cigarette usage. In many countries, more smokers report getting information about the health risks of smoking from warning labels than any other source except television.1,2 Additionally, non-smokers, including children, report high awareness of warning labels.1 Theories in social and hea… Australia’s three million smokers are speaking with their wallets and literally walking into their local retailers and asking for the cheapest pack on the shelves.”. 6F 7 Although he did concede: “The impact of smoking among a population who continue to smoke in the face of strong public education was always going to be small, and they do point out that some of the previous evaluations of plain packaging have likely overestimated effects through lack of appropriate controls (inevitable for this kind of research).”. Labor attributes the decline in smoking to its plain packaging legislation, which saw all branding removed from cigarette packs from December 2012. Background We assessed whether the Australian plain packs with larger graphic health warnings (GHWs) achieved three specific objectives of reducing the appeal of tobacco, increasing health warning effectiveness and reducing the ability of packaging to mislead about smoking harms. For a list of forthcoming updates, see here. “That takes the total fall in tobacco consumption to a staggering 12.8% in the two years since Labor’s plain packaging laws came into effect,” the opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King said. Tax increases and “hard-hitting” education campaigns were identified as the most effective in encouraging individuals to quit smoking. Please try again. Plain packaging implementation: perceptions of risk and prestige of cigarette brands among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. However it still costs the country some $137 billion a year, and tobacco use accounts for 10 per cent of the annual disease burden. The Australian Council on Smoking and Health said Australia has been a pioneer in the area of plain packaging. “Instead of quitting, smokers are looking for cheaper options. Its fault, they say, lays in the fact they did not include tobacco tax hikes as part of their control variables. Finally, in emphasising the importance of plain packaging as a public health measure, Australia stated that it was ‘implementing plain packaging to protect the public health of Australia's population from an addictive and dangerous substance that causes widespread death and disease in Australia (and around the world)’ and noted that the WHO and WHO FCTC Secretariat had provided ‘strong support for plain … All rights reserved. plain pack of cigarettes with a regular branded pack. The impact of pictures on the effectiveness of tobacco warnings Geoffrey T Fong a, David Hammond a & Sara C Hitchman a. a. Instead it resulted in smokers just buying cheaper brands, actually making them smoke more. University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada. For example, in 2012, Australia became the first country in the world to implement a “plain packaging” policy where cigarette packs no longer have brand imagery and a large pictorial warning covers most of the face of the pack (Zacher et al., 2014). And how will this one finish? The first comprehensive evaluation of Australia's ground-breaking plain packaging tobacco laws shows they are working, the Victorian Cancer Council says. Australia’s plain packaging: the British House of Commons has just voted to adopt similar legislation. Subscribe for free to get the latest breaking news and analysis sent to your inbox. Australia implemented plain packaging in 2012 Some other countries plan to implement it: France, UK, New Zealand, ... Sæbø G. Perceptions of Plain and Branded Cigarette Packaging Among Norwegian Youth and Adults: A Focus Group Study. Initial research conducted in Australia after implementation of its law in December 2012, shows that plain packaging reduces the appeal of tobacco products, increased the noticeability and effectiveness of health warnings, and appears to be having effects on smoker attitudes and behaviors. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA In turn they were replaced with drab dark brown packets (Pantone 448 C) and graphic images of smoking-related images to try to reduce the smoking population of Australia to 10% by 2018 from 15% in 2012. Quite pointless. (ABC News, Australia) Tobacco plain packaging laws come into effect. Industry analysts have called the paper everything from “flawed” to “truly terrible”. “The intensity of [the tobacco industry’s] global lobbying against plain packaging was unprecedented: It fears plain packaging like no other policy,” Professor Chapman said. Since 1 December 2012 all forms of branding logos, colours, and promotional texts are banned from cigarette pack designs. Methods We compared responses from continuous cross-sectional telephone surveys of n=2176 cigarette … Charities slammed by triple threat as coronavirus damage takes its toll, Vegans rising: Australia second in the world for veganism as Gen Z snubs lab-grown meat, Industry super funds to invest $33 billion in job creation, Victorian real estate agents push back against calls to block rent reductions, Call for diversity as Aussie model with disability prepares for catwalk at New York Fashion Week, Coronavirus another reason to quit cigarettesÂ, ‘Hundreds of thousands’ Chinese get experimental COVID vaccine. The research comprised qualitative focus groups and interviews, a quantitative survey, eye-tracking research and stakeholder consultation. BPharm – James Cook University, Australia . Design Serial cross-sectional study with weekly telephone surveys (April 2006–May 2013). Design Cross-sectional survey during the roll-out phase of the law, analysed by timing of survey. It’s an omission that fatally undermines the validity of the study, Sydney School of Public Health Emeritus Professor Simon Chapman AO said. The cigarette warning describing the financial costs associated with smoking (cigarette 5, Figure 2) was consistently rated the most effective in all four countries (OR=3.42, 95% CI: 2.75–4.25, p<0.001) compared to current packaging warnings followed by the cigarette warnings describing the effect of smoking on others (cigarette 2, Figure 2) (OR=2.85, 95% CI: 2.29–3.55, p<0.001). Background We assessed whether the Australian plain packs with larger graphic health warnings (GHWs) achieved three specific objectives of reducing the appeal of tobacco, increasing health warning effectiveness and reducing the ability of packaging to mislead about smoking harms. Doctor of Philosophy . Methods We compared responses from continuous cross-sectional telephone surveys of n=2176 cigarette … Introduction of tobacco plain packaging in Australia About plain packaging Since 1 December 2012, all tobacco products sold, offered for sale, or supplied in Australia must be in plain packaging. Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change deputy director Ron Borland said the study showed flaws in the process of curating the findings. The seasonally-adjusted figures for the December quarter show a 2.9% fall in consumption, contributing to a 12.2% yearly fall from December 2013 to December 2014. “The British decision is especially important, as many countries still look to the UK as an exemplar. There was an error submitting the form. Although Australia had no notable hikes between April 2010 and the end of 2013, New Zealand was rolling out a 10 per cent increase in January 2011. Get The New Daily free every morning and evening. “Just because people are spending less money on tobacco doesn’t mean they’re reducing the amount the smoke, in fact many are smoking more for less,” McIntyre said. When given the plain packs, more than 77% of the respondents described them as “dull” and 63% as “ugly”; 66% said that they did not feel like purchasing such packs, and 60% found that. MPharmPH – James Cook University, Australia . It also sought to identify considerations for future design of GHWs on tobacco product packaging in Australia. The headlines are as recent as a puffed smoke-ring, wafting intact: Australia proposes regulations mandating plain packaging. In the US, it’s about $11. A photo illustration shows a smoker with a pack of cigarettes featuring restrictive tobacco packaging outside a Sydney office building in Australia, May 5, 2017. 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