Does Plain Packaging on Tobacco Products Work?

- The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a detailed guide for countries considering plain packaging for tobacco products.

The move is part of an ongoing push by WHO to reduce the number of preventable tobacco-related deaths that occur each year.

“Strip back the glamour and glossy packaging that contain tobacco products and what is left? A product that kills almost 6 million people every year,” WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said in a statement to mark World No Tobacco Day 2016.

The WHO publication tries to anticipate every roadblock that countries might face in passing laws to help reduce the public health burden caused by tobacco.

As part of that plan, WHO officials recommend prohibiting the use of logos, colors, and brand images on tobacco packaging. Instead, standard colors and fonts should be used for the packaging and product and brand names — the same for all manufacturers.

Legal challenges are expected. It’s “an example of the tobacco industry’s broader strategy of using litigation to contest regulation, rather than a new phenomenon,” WHO officials say.

And the scientific evidence supporting plain packaging is clearly laid out.

This includes scientific studies, surveys, and focus group studies, along with early evidence from Australia — which introduced plain packaging legislation in 2012 to become the first country to do so.