WHO tasks countries on plain packaging of tobacco products

The World Health Organ­isation (WHO) has called on countries around the world to put in place measures that will lead to plain packaging to tobacco products.
This is contained in a state­ment by the WHO Regional Director, Dr. Matshidiso Moe­ti, to mark the 2016 World To­bacco Day.
This is even as every year, more than 5 million people die because they use tobacco prod­ucts around the world. Also, another 600,000, who are non-smokers, die from exposure to second-hand smoke globally.

In the African Region, how­ever, about 146,000 adults, aged 30 years and above die every year as a result of tobacco-re­lated diseases.
This, according to the WHO, makes tobacco one of the lead­ing preventable risk factors for non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lung disease and diabetes.
“Plain packaging of tobacco products refers to measures that require packages of all tobacco products to have a standard co­lour and style, and to bear only the name of the product.
“Plain packaging therefore re­stricts or prohibits the use of lo­gos, colours, brand images and promotional information on packaging of tobacco products.
“Plain packaging also reduc­es the attractiveness of tobacco products, and eliminates the use of tobacco packaging as a form of tobacco advertising and pro­motion,” the world health body explained.
Apart from limiting mis­leading packaging and label­ing, and increase the effective­ness of health warnings, the WHO noted that plain packag­ing is an evidence-based mea­sure that protects public health, can save many lives, and there­fore should be used in conjunc­tion with other methods as part of a comprehensive multi-sec­toral approach to tobacco con­trol.
The theme of this year’s World No Tobacco Day is ‘Get ready for plain packaging’.
It recalled that Australia was the first country to fully imple­ment plain packaging in 2012 and since then, Ireland, the United Kingdom and France have passed similar laws to im­plement plain packaging.
“Evidence from Australia shows that this measure is work­ing well. It is helping smokers to realize that all tobacco brands are harmful. The country indi­cated that the daily smoking rate declined from 15.1% to 12.8% between 2010 and 2013.
“As of now, no country in the African Region has adopted leg­islation on plain packaging. We are confident that when coun­tries in our Region adopt this measure, the impact will be sim­ilar,” WHO further explained.
The WHO Regional Direc­tor therefore urged individuals, households and civil society organizations to join by raising public awareness on the public health benefits of plain packag­ing.
“Let us work together to pro­mote and implement plain packaging of tobacco products, so that, ultimately, we may de­crease tobacco-related illnesses and premature death. Let us all get ready, because the time for plain packaging is now,” he re­iterated.