UK vote will bolster action - Plain cigarette packaging

THE inevitable challenge from tobacco conglomerates to legislation making plain packaging on cigarettes mandatory cannot be dismissed lightly but it cannot be shirked either.

Earlier this week, President Michael D Higgins signed legislation on plain packaging making Ireland just the second country to do so. Australia was the first, but the news that the House of Commons has voted by a large majority to adopt similar measures from May 2016 must be welcomed.

Not only does the London vote mark another very significant step in process of making tobacco use socially unacceptable, it also means that the tobacco giants are facing an altogether more powerful opposition than heretofore.

The UK legislation was supported by Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs.

Children’s Minister James Reilly has said the Government anticipated that tobacco producers would file a suit once the legislation was finalised. “They — the tobacco companies — will do it more in the hope than certainty. They do it more to intimidate us and to intimidate other countries who are prepared to follow suit,” said Dr Reilly.

Now that the UK has decided to insist on plain packaging, that intimidation is far less likely to succeed.

It may have taken decades and millions of lives, but it seems that the battle against smoking and the lethal diseases it causes is moving towards an endgame.