WELLINGTON: New Zealand announced plans yesterday to force tobacco companies to sell cigarettes in plain packaging, becoming only the second country in the world after Australia to introduce the measure.
Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia said banning tobacco branding and selling cigarettes in drab boxes plastered with explicit health warnings “will remove the last remaining vestige of glamour from these deadly products”.
“Currently the packaging does everything it can to attract consumers and increase the perceived appeal and acceptability of smoking,” she told reporters.
“The move to plain packaging would make more explicit what tobacco is – a product that kills 5,000 New Zealanders a year.”
The move was widely anticipated after New Zealand gave support in principle to plain packaging last year and praised Australia’s pioneering efforts.
The packaging was introduced in Australia in December, meaning all cigarettes must be sold in identical, olive-brown boxes bearing the same typeface and large health warnings bearing graphic images of diseased smokers.
Turia said the government would introduce legislation later this year but delay enforcing it until legal challenges launched by tobacco firms against Australia’s ban had been decided. — AFP