Smoking rates in Australia fell at their fastest pace in more than two decades, following the introduction of the world’s first law forcing cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging.
The daily smoking rate fell 15 per cent between 2010 and December 1 2013, when one in eight Australians said they lit up at least once a day, according to the most comprehensive survey undertaken since the new rules came into force.
Australia, which introduced plain packaging in December 2012, is at the centre of a global debate over whether laws removing all corporate branding and adding graphic health warnings can reduce smoking. Tobacco companies claim the rules do not work and say they infringe their intellectual property rights.
Simon Chapman, a professor in public health at the University of Sydney, told the Sydney Morning Herald that plain packaging was almost “like finding a vaccine that works very well against lung cancer”.
Australia smoking rates tumble after plain packaging shift (Jamie Smyth, Financial Times)
Previously: Lung May He Run
Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland
Australia appears progressive on the packaging front, however, the failure to support, or even allow, in some areas electronic cigarette users is regrettable.
“Electronic cigarette” users are still mindless morons who should be shunned just like regular smokers.
They may not smell as bad but they are equally offensive.
Why should they be shunned?
“Shunned”… good man. A modern man of the last millennium.
Jesus. If she said no, respect her decision and take your horn elsewhere.
Your holier-than-thou attitude is offensive to me.
Who’s more offended?
Let’s have an offended-off.
This is what the internet was created for!
Someone call Dante we need another layer at the bottom.
Thanks Dwight…. uh…. Moan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg0pnCk81sg
The many dangers of smoking are so well known at this stage, that I can’t see such packaging making a huge difference to existing smokers.
Smokers are weak and stupid, and it would take something really special to penetrate that shield.
Is the measure not aimed at potential smokers to a large degree? The interesting figures would be the effects on uptake rates.
you have just read that changing the packaging reduces smoking rates but you don’t see it? Also “smokers are weak and stupid”? not only you are clearly an idiot, you also lack basic human empathy. find a good analyst buddy.
It’s about stopping recruitment of young smokers moron.
Smokers are “weak and stupid”. Hahaha… I love the your display of ignorance. Well done.
oops, sorry about the extra ‘the’
I’d say your own shield is fairly impenetrable alright.
He’s right. Smokers are weak-willed and stupid. It’s why so many working class smoke. They look at things in the short term and don’t make plans for the future. And they can least afford to smoke yet will sacrifice their children’s welfare in order to have their fags. It’s abuse.
Good man. “Weak-willed and stupid”
Tell that to a few of these… the ones still alive that is. Also, some of shown the very strong “will” to quit. Something you not being an addict, I presume, will not ever fully understand.
Einstein
Brian O’Driscoll
Barack Obama (also smoked pot and “inhaled frequently” )
Hugh Laurie
Edwin Powell Hubble
It’s a short list, I couldn’t be arsed looking up any more because it’s a stupid statement you’ve made in the first place.
Clampers, you should try to be controversial sometimes instead of seeking approval all the time and speak the truth as you know it.
We live in a generation of apologists for other people’s failings. Nobody is to blame for anything anymore. Well, they are. And smokers are to blame for their own misery.
Your list of smokers is hilarious, thanks for the laugh.
I used to smoke. I smoked for years. I was weak-willed and stupid but I copped on and gave up. Now I am healthier than ever. I have far more energy, more money and have a much fuller life. I can taste my food again, enjoy the perfumes of nature and have far more stamina. I am married to a wonderful woman who I’d never have met had I smoked.
I have no time for being sympathetic to people to use excuses for their own weakness when they couldn’t be bothered to make an effort to improve their lives.
People have no sympathy for heroin addicts (but it’s really a hatred of the lower working class) so why have sympathy for smokers?
Leave champers outa this … A ray of kind sunshine he/ she is.. approval seeking is a bit cynical
personally as a non smoker I shake my head especially when you look at the high cost of anti wrinkle creams made redundant by every time you light up but it’s like calling everyone who indulgences in anything bad for you to excess the odd the weak and stupid… I am off for a pint :)
clampers not champers
I think stupid is forever..
There’s none so pure as a reformed whore.
Id say the fact that smokes cost $20 a packet is a far greater contriubutor than plain packaging
Is that not representative of Australian pricing generally? A pint is about a tenner.