Canada Announced Plain Packaging Measures
Date:2019-5-16 15:01:45 Clicks:504 【Font Size:
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Working in line with the Canada’s Tobacco Strategy, Canada government has recently announced that plain packaging for tobacco products will be implemented on 9 November 2019.
The new measures include removing the distinctive and attractive features and adopting the drab brown colour in all cigarette packaging, which is perceived to be more “harmful to health” and the products are “harder to quit”. The text of the brands has to be displayed in a standard location, font, colour and size. The size of health warnings will also be enlarged. Meanwhile, only single shape of cigarette packets will be allowed. In other words, the slimmer design which is used to target women will be prohibited. The implementation of plain packaging of tobacco products is one of the key strategies to help achieve the goal of reducing the smoking rate in Canada from 17% to 5% by 2035.
Australia became the first country to implement plain packaging for tobacco products in 2012 and the measure has accounted to a 0.55 percentage point reduction in smoking prevalence between December 2012 and September 2015. Plain packaging has now been adopted in 9 countries and is under consideration in at least 16 other jurisdictions. COSH urges the Hong Kong Government to review the effectiveness of the new pictorial health warnings duly and implement the plain packaging of the tobacco products so as to reduce the tobacco use in Hong Kong.