Opposing views on merits of plain cigarette packaging

The tobacco industry and a leading cancer charity have offered opposing verdicts on the success of the plain packaging of cigarettes, two years to the day since the measure was first introduced in Australia.

The group behind the marketing of cigarette brands such as Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut, Camel and Amber Leaf in Ireland has claimed that the measure has been “a failure”, and said figures from Australian government agencies show plain packaging has done nothing to speed up the decline in smoking rates nor consistently reduce sales of tobacco.

“These facts have been deliberately ignored by plain packaging advocates,” said Igor Dzaja, general manager of Japan Tobacco International Ireland.