Turkey’s head of the Tobacco and Alcohol Department of Agriculture and Forestry Ministry, Yüksel Denli, said that the country is to become the seventh nation to standardize cigarette packaging, after France, the U.K., Ireland, Norway, Canada and Australia.

Denli explained that the regulation aims to reduce the attractiveness of tobacco products and deter smokers by increasing the size of visual health warnings on packaging. “The cigarette sales sections in the markets have a combination of appealing elements that encourage, especially young people, to use them,” he said. “With plain and standard packages, we aim to eliminate their attractiveness.”

The new tobacco packaging will be of the same color with a standard font for brand names and other necessary information, but will carry no logos or other distinctive marks. Graphic health warnings, including 14 new warning labels, will cover 85% of the packaging surface area, whilst featuring the 171 quitline.

Denli explained that the new packaging will not include any information about tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide release values, as the lower values create a misconception for smokers. “Less nicotine or tar release values make smokers think that tobacco products are less harmful. We aim to change this wrong idea by removing the information,” he said.

The measure applies to all tobacco products.

The Minister added that in Turkey, the plan packaging regulation will apply to all tobacco products. “We have a difference,” Denli said. “The other countries apply standardized packages for cigarette and chopped tobacco [cut rag], while Turkey applies it for all the tobacco products. We can say that we are an example to the world.”  


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