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Tobacco companies fight against Australia's cigarette campaign

Published: 2010-08-09    Views:78 reads

 

The big tobacco companies on Wednesday slammed the Australian government's plan to introduce plain cigarette packaging.

The federal government earlier this year announced that it wanted cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging, without brand logos, images and colors, from 2012.

However, the Alliance of Australian Retailers (AAR), a group bankrolled by three tobacco companies, do not want that to happen.

The AAR will take out full-page advertisements in Thursday's papers criticizing the plan, which they argue will hurt small business and lead to job losses.

"Plain packaging is not a proven policy," AAR spokeswoman Sheryle Moon told ABC News. "There's no credible evidence that this policy will stop people smoking, that it will stop kids, young people, taking up cigarette smoking. It will just make it more difficult for retailers to do their business."

Professor Simon Chapman, from the school of public health at the University of Sydney, said Australia would be the first country to introduce plain packaging.

"The international tobacco industries are scared stiff about this," Chapman told ABC News.

"The international industry have been pre-occupied about this since it was announced. They've had international conferences about it, they've had cover stories on their trade magazines, they 've bunkered down they've worked out that they really have to try and get on top of this issue in Australia because it will domino all around the world."

The newly-formed AAR has 19,000 members representing corner stores, petrol stations, and newsagents.