Cigarette companies sue over plain packaging regulations

By: Elaine Yau _ May 08, 2012

Smokers in Hong Kong might soon have trouble telling brands of cigarettes apart as the government toys with the idea of demanding plain packaging to combat tobacco consumption.

Hong Kong is among about half a dozen jurisdictions that met recently to discuss the feasibility of such a move, says Judith Mackay, senior adviser with the World Lung Foundation.

Mackay says she has been talking to the Hong Kong government about plain packaging for some time, although the government is "not quite ready to implement it".

"Many countries, including Hong Kong, are waiting to see what happens in Australia. We need a precedent before we go forward," she says.
On December 1, Australia will adopt the world's first plain packaging legislation, which bans the use of the brand logo, symbols, other images or promotional text on tobacco products. The country is taking the lead in implementing Article 13 of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. This says "a comprehensive ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship would reduce the consumption of tobacco products".

Cigarettes will be sold in drab packages with graphic images of tobacco-related diseases and warnings that occupy 75 per cent of the area of the box. No trademark logos will be permitted on any packaging of tobacco products, although firms will be able to print their name and the brand in a small, prescribed font on the packets.

"The smoking rate dropped from 30.5 per cent in 1998 to 15.1 per cent in 2010 in Australia, but we still expect 15,000 Australians to die from smoking every year," says Jane Halton, secretary of Australia's Department of Health and Ageing.

Packaging, she says, is one of the last forms of tobacco advertising and must be removed. Her sentiments were echoed by authorities and experts at the 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Singapore in March.

The tobacco industry is fighting back. Australia has been sued by Hong Kong-based tobacco giant Philip Morris Asia, which alleges that plain packaging amounts to unlawful expropriation of the company's investments and valuable intellectual property without compensation.

Australia has also been sued in its High Court by the tobacco industry. "The reaction from the industry is not surprising, but they are becoming more extreme and subversive," says Halton. "We reject the claims filed by Philip Morris. Our arbitrators will hear the case."

Philip Morris moved its business from Australia to Hong Kong soon after the Australian government announced its decision on plain packaging in April 2010.

Since the announcement, Halton says her department has received 53 "freedom of information requests" relating to plain packaging from the tobacco industry - a tactic aimed at slowing the bureaucracy down.

"The requests are designed to ensure we are required to examine hundreds of files and tens of thousands of documents for potential release. [The industry wants to] tie up funding and resources within my department to ensure we have less time to implement this law," she says.

"We will not be deterred by the threats and will fight this incredibly vigorously."

Uruguay, Norway and Turkey are also countering legal challenges from the tobacco industry regarding their tightened tobacco control measures.

WHO director general Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun says the chain of legal action taken by the tobacco industry shows its desperation. "I take it as an indication that big tobacco sees the writing on the wall," she says. "These are the death throes of the industry."

Chan applauded Australia's resolve in curbing tobacco consumption. "We must make plain packaging a big success so that it becomes the success of the world," she says.

Simon Chapman, professor in public health at the University of Sydney, says it's ludicrous for the tobacco industry to take the Australian government to court - alleging the government is acquiring valuable intellectual property and using it to make money.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong Health Department says it will consider whether to adopt plain packaging legislation. In 1994, it became mandatory for cigarette packs sold in Hong Kong to carry written warnings. Graphic health warnings, which have to occupy half of a packet's area, were introduced in 2007.

Article 11 of WHO's convention - which was enacted in 2005 and has 174 countries signed up so far - compels parties, within three years of joining the convention, to have tobacco product health warnings that cover at least 30 per cent (and preferably 50 per cent) of the visible area on a cigarette pack. Singapore, the first country in Asia to implement graphic health warnings on packets, will introduce a new set of health warnings that use gory and emotional images from next March.

"What [the tobacco industry] wants to see is a domino effect," says Chan. "When one country's resolve falters under the pressure of costly, drawn-out litigation and threats of billion-dollar settlements, others with similar intentions are likely to topple as well."

Chan says no commercial interest should undermine public health measures to protect people. Article 5.3 of the WHO convention on tobacco control gives countries the space and legitimacy to take such actions.

Copyright © 2012 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All right reserved

Taxes discourage tobacco use

Tobacco taxes are the most effective way to reduce tobacco use, especially among young people and poor people. A tax increase that increases tobacco prices by 10% decreases tobacco consumption by about 4% in high-income countries and by up to 8% in low- and middle-income countries.

Only 27 countries, representing less than 8% of the world's population, have tobacco tax rates greater than 75% of the retail price.
Tobacco tax revenues are on average 154 times higher than spending on tobacco control, based on available data.

Tobacco is the only legal consumer product that kills up to half of its consumers

Australia leading the war on tobacco

SHIN YOUNG-SOO

Tobacco is the only legal consumer product that kills up to half of its consumers when used exactly as the manufacturer intends.

And it kills in prodigious numbers. Nearly 6 million people worldwide die each year from tobacco-related diseases. That's more than the total for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.

In the World Health Organisation's Western Pacific Region, where I am Regional Director, we estimate that two people die every minute from a tobacco-related disease. One in three of the cigarettes that are smoked globally are smoked in our region - a disturbing statistic that tells us that governments have to be far more vigorous if they are to turn back this evil scourge.

Not surprisingly, then, WHO is keenly interested in the Australian Government's proposal to press for plain packaging for cigarettes, along with bigger and blunter warnings on packets about the dangers of smoking. WHO fully supports these measures, which will give effect to commitments under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which has been ratified by 170 countries, Australia included.

Article 11 of the WHO FCTC requires governments to implement measures to ensure that tobacco packaging is not false or misleading or likely to create an erroneous impression about the characteristics or health effects of the contents. We believe that plain packaging will do that job very nicely - and, in doing so, could save many Australian lives in the long run.

It is no surprise that the cigarette manufacturers are doing their best to derail the legislation. With other forms of advertising banned in Australia, they know that once they lose the seductive colours and logos on packets, they will be identified for what they are: thoroughly unglamorous merchants of death and disease.

In recognition of Australia's world-leading role in the war on smoking, Health Minister Nicola Roxon is to receive a special award from the World Health Organisation's Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan. The Director-General's Special Recognition certificate cites Roxon's "unwavering leadership" in the field of health and describes the proposal to introduce plain packaging as a "bold and breakthrough" approach that is inspiring political leaders in other countries. I will have the honour of presenting the certificate in a ceremony in Canberra on May 31.

The tobacco lobby's response so far to the plain-packing proposal has been both predictable and desperate. Apart from threatening to sue the Government for loss of intellectual property rights, cigarette companies have talked of slashing prices and flooding the market with cheap cigarettes. Note how they make no attempt to defend their product on health grounds, despite their discredited insinuation that so-called "lite" or "low tar" cigarettes are less harmful. For them, it's all about profits and not about lives.

Tobacco causes over 20 different diseases, many of them fatal or disabling. It is responsible for over 71 per cent of all cases of lung cancer deaths globally, 42 per cent of chronic respiratory disease deaths and nearly 10 per cent of all deaths from cardiovascular disease. Passive or second-hand exposure to tobacco smoke causes an estimated 600,000 deaths a year globally.

We're told that 15,000 people die in Australia every year from tobacco-related illnesses, and that the seven leading causes of death are all linked to smoking. The social, health and economic costs of tobacco-related illnesses are estimated at more than $30 billion a year - and this is not taking into account the anguish suffered by families and friends affected by death or lingering illness.

Faced with tough laws and declining sales in Australia, the tobacco industry is seeking new targets overseas, particularly women, young people and people in low- and middle-income countries. Of WHO's six regions, the Western Pacific has the fastest increase in smoking by women and young people, the greatest number of smokers, and the highest rates of male smoking prevalence.

In the poorest households of some low-income countries in the Asia Pacific region, as much as 10 per cent -17 per cent of total household expenditure goes on tobacco. This means that families have less money to spend on essential items such as food, health care and education. The high price of treating tobacco-related diseases is compounded by economic losses. Smokers are less productive workers, due to sickness and absenteeism. And deaths from tobacco often occur during the productive years of life, depleting a nation’s workforce.

This situation is intolerable. WHO is urging governments to recognise that there is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry's interests and those of the nation. This is why we are so enthused by Australia's plain-packaging legislation. If passed, it would set new global standards and encourage governments in the Asia Pacific Region to also get tough with the tobacco industry.

Minister Roxon has acknowledged she will have a fight on her hands, but she says she is ready. I'm sure she is. And WHO is ready too to lend any support it can. We see what is happening in Australia as potentially a tipping point in the global war on the tobacco companies and their life-destroying product.

Dr Shin Young-soo is WHO's Regional Director for the Western Pacific

WHO is committed to fight the global tobacco epidemic.

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control entered into force in February 2005. Since then, it has become one of the most widely embraced treaties in the history of the United Nations with more than 170 Parties covering 87% of the world's population. The WHO Framework Convention is WHO's most important tobacco control tool and a milestone in the promotion of public health. It is an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of people to the highest standard of health, provides legal dimensions for international health cooperation and sets high standards for compliance.

In 2008, WHO introduced a package of tobacco control measures to further counter the tobacco epidemic and to help countries to implement the WHO Framework Convention. Known by their acronym MPOWER, the measures are identified as "best buys" and "good buys" in tobacco control. Each measure corresponds to at least one provision of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The six MPOWER measures are:

Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
Protect people from tobacco use
Offer help to quit tobacco use
Warn about the dangers of tobacco
Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Raise taxes on tobacco.
For more information contact:
WHO Media centre
Telephone: +41 22 791 2222
E-mail: mediainquiries@who.int

Many Women Still Smoke During Pregnancy

(HealthDay News) -- Too many American women still smoke during their pregnancies, a new report finds, and rates of such smoking vary widely depending on race.

Researchers found that almost 22 percent of pregnant white women aged 15 to 44 smoked cigarettes within the previous 30 days, compared with just over 14 percent of pregnant black women and 6.5 percent of Hispanic women in the same age range.

The rate of illicit drug use during pregnancy, however, was higher among black women (7.7 percent) than among white women (4.4 percent) or Hispanic women (about 3 percent), according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration study, released Wednesday.

Rates of alcohol use during pregnancy were about the same for black and white women (12.8 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively), and much higher than among Hispanic women (7.4 percent), according to the study.

The findings are based on an analysis of data from the administration's 2002 to 2010 national surveys on drug use and health.

"When pregnant women use alcohol, tobacco or illicit substances they are risking health problems for themselves and poor birth outcomes for their babies," Pamela Hyde, administrator at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said in a government news release.

"Pregnant women of different races and ethnicities may have diverse patterns of substance abuse," Hyde said. "It is essential that we use the findings from this report to develop better ways of getting this key message out to every segment of our community so that no woman or child is endangered by substance use and abuse."

Gradual killer

Because there is a lag of several years between when people start using tobacco and when their health suffers, the epidemic of tobacco-related disease and death has just begun.

Tobacco caused 100 million deaths in the 20th century. If current trends continue, it will cause up to one billion deaths in the 21st century.
Unchecked, tobacco-related deaths will increase to more than eight million per year by 2030. More than 80% of those deaths will be in low- and middle-income countries.

Tobacco Key facts

Key facts
Tobacco kills up to half of its users.
Tobacco kills nearly six million people each year, of whom more than 5 million are users and ex users and more than 600 000 are nonsmokers exposed to second-hand smoke. Unless urgent action is taken, the annual death toll could rise to more than eight million by 2030.
Nearly 80% of the world's one billion smokers live in low- and middle-income countries.
Consumption of tobacco products is increasing globally, though it is decreasing in some high-income and upper middle-income countries.