A novel way to stop youngsters from smoking

In the article “City’s illicit cigarette trade costs local jobs’’ (Irish Examiner, July 30), Joe Sweeney of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents described the proposed plain packaging of tobacco products as “just a feel-good gimmick that will drive up the illegal trade”.

Far from being a “gimmick”, standardised packaging of tobacco products is the most innovative means of stopping young people from taking up smoking, and is a policy the Irish Heart Foundation strongly supports.

Tobacco companies invest huge sums of money in advertising and marketing their products. They use different colours and branding to recruit new customers, who are nearly always children and young people. Irish legislation has been introduced to ban tobacco advertising in many forms and the introduction of plain packaging would end the last legal form of tobacco advertising to young people.

This innovative health policy will have no impact on tobacco smuggling rates. The Minister for Finance has publicly stated that the Revenue Commissioners don’t believe that the introduction of standardised packaging will impact on their work. Standardised packaging is not plain white packaging. Standardised packs will still carry all the sophisticated security markings, health warnings and other labels currently on tobacco packs. That means that so-called “plain” packs would be as hard to counterfeit as current designs. The only difference would be that such packaging would be less attractive, especially to children.

Cliona McCormack

Irish Heart Foundation

Dublin 4