Aussies Take on Big Tobacco With Plain Packaging Law

The Australian government is stepping up the fight against smoking by proposing laws to restrict cigarette packaging, replacing colorful logos and branding with graphic images of death and disease.

Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed bigger and more graphic warnings on cigarette packaging in this country, Australia is aiming to impose even more extensive requirements to curb tobacco promotion. “This plain packaging legislation is a world first and sends a clear message that the glamour is gone,” Health Minister Nicola Roxon said in a news release. “Cigarette packs will now only show the death and disease that can come from smoking.”

But the move sets up a major fight with Big Tobacco. British American Tobacco, the largest cigarette seller in Australia, said the laws would infringe on intellectual property rights and international trademark rules. “It’s going to end up in the courts,” a company spokesman told The Wall Street Journal.

According to the government, smoking kills 15,000 Australians a year and costs the country about $33 billion annually. Under the Tobacco Plain Packaging Bill 2011, product names will appear in standard colors and packets will be colored a dark olive-brown, which government research has found is the least appealing color to smokers. Health warnings with graphic images of the harmful effects of smoking will have to make up 75 percent of the front of the packaging and 90 percent of the back.

In a recent Cancer Council Australia study of residents of the state of Victoria, 73 percent said they supported plain packaging for cigarettes. If all goes according to the government’s plan, the law would come into effect this coming Jan. 1, and manufacturers will be required to comply within six months. “This is a historic day for tobacco control globally,” a spokesman for the Australian Council on Smoking and Health told the Australian Associated Press.

Roxon believes the government can win a legal battle. “We’re not going to have Big Tobacco scaring us with legal action,” she said.