Note: World Lung Foundation united with The Union North America. From January 2016, the combined organization is known as “Vital Strategies.”
(New York, USA) – World Lung Foundation today hailed a decision by Australia’s High Court to dismiss claims by Japan Tobacco Inc., British American Tobacco Plc, Philip Morris International Inc. and Imperial Tobacco Group Plc that the Australian government effectively removed their intellectual property by enacting the world’s first legislation to require plain packaging for cigarettes. This decision, which strips the industry of one tool of their deception to hook people to a deadly habit, will save countless lives.
The legislation was enacted by Australia’s Senate and House of Representatives last year and comes into effect from December 1, 2012. The legislation states that all cigarettes and other tobacco products must be sold in plain olive-coloured packaging, free of company logos, branding and promotional text. The same font must be used for all brands and graphic health warnings will cover 90 percent of the back of the package and 70 percent of the front.
The Australian Government’s plain packaging legislation remains the subject of legal action under global trade rules. Ukraine, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have filed complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO), claiming the laws unfairly restrict trade. Similarly, Philip Morris International has launched a legal challenge under a bilateral Australia-Hong Kong investment agreement.
Peter Baldini, Chief Executive Officer, World Lung Foundation added: “We congratulate the Australian government for taking the mask off packaging that falsely presents tobacco as fresh, fun and cool. Smokers see the images on cigarette packs on average 15 times per day, which adds up to 5,500 times per year. Abundant research has shown that graphic pack warnings are highly effective in conveying the specific harms of tobacco use and, when used in combination with plain packaging, both help encourage smokers to quit and discourage youth from taking up smoking.
“We hope that this sound ruling in Australia’s High Court will set a precedent for other countries seeking to eliminate the tobacco epidemic. Big Tobacco continues to obstruct public health through lawsuits and trade disputes that divert attention and resources from reducing tobacco-related deaths. Put more simply: if Big Tobacco is this worried, plain packaging and graphic warnings must be good for public health. We call on those countries currently considering plain packaging to follow Australia’s lead.”
According to The Tobacco Atlas, 17 percent of male deaths and 14 per cent of female deaths in Australia are due to tobacco. The direct costs of smoking are estimated at US $8,860 million in Australia and annual cigarette consumption is 1,034 per capita. It is estimated that 17 per cent of youth live in homes where others smoke in their presence in Australia, and 3 per cent of male youth (aged 13-15) and 4.6 per cent of female youth (aged 13-15) smoke cigarettes.
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of mortality in the world today, and is responsible for more than five million deaths each year—one in ten preventable deaths worldwide. The implementation of graphic pack warnings and plain packaging is one of the main commitments under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to which Australia is a party. It is one of the World Health Organization’s M-P-O-W-E-R (W=Warn) strategies to reduce tobacco consumption. MPOWER strategies are endorsed and promoted by the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, of which World Lung Foundation is a principal partner.