Oz sales fail to prove plain cigarette packs work

No hard retail evidence has emerged in Australia to show that the introduction of plain packaging for cigarettes is worth copying by other countries.

It is more than a year since Australia became the first country in the world to introduce plain packs, but available supermarket data is inconclusive.

Cigarette sales in Australian supermarkets, which account for a large portion of the market, shrank 0.9% overall by volume in 2013, according to the latest data available from Retail World, but there is no clear link to the plain packaging laws.

The Retail World supermarket sales data also showed that while sales volumes of “mainstream” and “premium” cigarettes fell by 8%-9%, “value” brand sales rose 12.9% — a jump the tobacco industry has seized on as supporting the theory that smokers are trading down in response to the legislation.

However, Health Minister James Reilly saidan independent review in Britain of the evidence for standardised tobacco packaging reaffirmed Ireland’s commitment to have plain packaging like that introduced in Australia.

Dr Reilly said the review provided clear evidence of the benefit to public health that the measure would provide, particularly for children.

The review found it was very likely to have a positive impact on public health and stop children from starting to smoke.

The British government is moving ahead with plans to ban branding on cigarette packs but the tobacco industry argues that standardised packaging would lead to an increase in smuggled cigarettes in Britain.

The industry also argued that evidence from Australia, which became the first country to bring in standardised packaging in December 2012, showed that the move had little impact on smoking rates.

The race is on will Ireland or UK be the second country in the world after Australia to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products?

— June Shannon (@juneshannon) April 3, 2014

Australian tobacco sellers told Reuters news agency that the tax on tobacco had had a bigger impact than the costly introduction of plain packaging.

The Australian government does not publicly release retail sales data on the basis that the market, which is dominated by Imperial, Philip Morris International, and British American Tobacco, is so tightly held that doingso would reveal sensitive commercial information.

Official data in Australia has been restricted to a survey conducted in late 2012 during the pack changeover, when smokers reported more of an inclination to quit, and a report at the start of 2013 from the smoking cessation helpline, Quitline, showing a 78% surge in calls associated with plain packaging.

A monthly tracking survey of smokers and recent quitters to gauge the effect of the legislation since it came into force on December 1, 2012, is due for release later this year.

Meanwhile, a 1,100 page report from the Oireachtas Health Committee made 26 recommendations, many of which are already planned by the minister.

Among the recommendations are that consideration be given to introducing mandatory trading hours for tobacco product retailers.

The Irish Cancer Society welcomed the Oireachtas report, saying that calls from smokers to its equivalent body in Australia wanting to quit soared by 78% when plain packaging was introduced.