April 3, 2014

expert reaction to Government announcement on plain cigarette packaging

Following publication of the Chantler Review* the Government announced it will move ahead with standardised plain packaging for cigarettes.

Professor Ann McNeill, UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, King’s College London, said:

“We welcome this announcement as an important step forward to protect the next generation from the powerful tentacles of the tobacco industry, and would encourage government to move forward with implementation as quickly as is possible. Evidence consistently shows that current cigarette packaging is appealing to children and misleading in suggesting that some cigarettes are less harmful than others. Plain packaging would also make health warnings more impactful.”

Prof Paul Aveyard, Professor of behavioural medicine, University of Oxford, said:

“It’s great news the Government is introducing plain packaging as the evidence is strong that it will probably help.  The sooner it is introduced, the sooner we will be able to examine its effects.  We will rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of this measure, as we did with smoke-free public places, so that other countries can learn from the UK experience.”

*http://www.kcl.ac.uk/health/packaging-review.aspx   

*https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chantler-report-on-standardised-packaging-of-tobacco-products