graphic warnings

Canada: look at the full proposed set of 16 exterior health warnings and the 8 interior messages

Thanks again to Rob Cunningham (Canadian Cancer Society) for all the details about the new graphic warnings, on the pack (75% of the front and the back) as well as inside the pack.

Canada: What size for the new graphic warnings?

The Conservative Government has reconsidered its initial decision of not installing a new set of graphic warnings but it is not clear yet what their content and size are going to be. They should be announced at the beginning of 2011.

See the NRSA release.

Richard Cohen: The faces behind the deadly tobacco addiction

 

Richard Cohen wrote this very interesting chronicle for the Washington Post about posting the faces of the cigarette companies  CEOs on the packs. There is a (non-scientific) poll along the article: are you in favor of this suggestion? last time I checked the Yes were at 62%. Do you have pictures of the CEOs in your country?

USA: have a look at the new proposed graphic warnings

The new graphic warnings will be selected from the list that can be seen here. 

New Zealand: lessons from the introduction of graphic warnings

This study is published in the WHO Newsletter.

Are other countries than Australia interested in plain packaging?

The Australian Health Minister thinks so after a recent OECD meeting.

BAT: a video against plain packaging

On the BAT site. Main argument: plain packaging would increase smuggling. Looking at the page devoted to the marketing strategy one sees that Packaging is a key component that would be directly impacted.

China: a new study shows the effectiveness of graphic warnings

The study published in Tobacco Control also shows there is a wide support for graphic warnings.

Turkey: the pictures are on

Australia: the 'tobacco files" or the tobacco industry strategy to fight against plain packaging

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation received leaked documents about the lobbying strategy of the tobacco industry, funded by millions of dollars. An interesting investigation about the importance of packaging. The program about the leak, called the tobacco files was aired on the Lateline program on September 10.

Australia: the 'tobacco files" or the tobacco industry strategy to fight against plain packaging

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation received leaked documents about the lobbying strategy of the tobacco industry, funded by millions of dollars. An interesting investigation about the importance of packaging. The program about the leak, called the tobacco files was aired on the Lateline program.

The tobacco files

Print Email

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 10/09/2010

Reporter: Peter Lloyd

Lateline has obtained evidence that big tobacco companies are driving a campaign which claims to be run by shopkeepers opposed to plain cigarette packaging.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: In August, Lateline revealed the existence of a tobacco industry-funded campaign against a looming ban on logos and branding on cigarette packets. 

From 2012, cigarettes will be sold in plain standardised packages carrying large graphic warnings against smoking. 

It's a world-first, hailed by anti-smoking advocates. 

Following our story, we received a stack of documents which appear to be internal emails, invoices and contracts outlining the precise nature of the involvement of the biggest tobacco company of them all, Philip Morris, and two other tobacco giants. 

After receiving them, we set about confirming every aspect of the documents that we could by independently verifying timelines and crosschecking the contents against known events. 

We checked phone numbers, email addresses, bank accounts and media interviews, plus we rang all of the companies mentioned. 

Only one would talk to us - the Civic Group, a public relations firm employed by Philip Morris. 

None of the tobacco companies involved in the campaign would be interviewed. 

Peter Lloyd reports on the tobacco files. 

CHERYL MOON, ALLIANCE OF AUSTRALIAN RETAILERS (August 4): I do want to make it very clear that the Alliance in this for the long term.

PETER LLOYD, REPORTER: How deep are the pockets? 

CHERYL MOON: Again, it depends on how long the campaign runs. However we do want to see the policy overturned.

PETER LLOYD: A month ago Cheryl Moon was the public face of the previously unheard of Alliance of Australian Retailers, complaining that plain packaging of cigarettes was bad for its members, thousands of ordinary Australian shopkeepers.

CHERYL MOON (August 4): Because it's harder to see them. They're not identified. They all look very similar. If I am serving customers it's difficult for me to find the right product for the customer.

PETER LLOYD: Reluctantly Ms Moon acknowledged that the Alliance was getting help from tobacco companies.

How much have they earmarked so far?

CHERYL MOON (August 4): I haven't received any money by email. There is a ...

PETER LLOYD: There must be an amount you've talked about. 

CHERYL MOON: The Alliance has come together to talk about the policy, not about the funding proposals.

PETER LLOYD: But the funding had already gone well beyond proposal stage. 

A week before, on the day the Alliance was set up, it became the instant beneficiary of millions of dollars from the world's top cigarette manufacturers. 

Here is the first document to become public that shows precisely how generous big tobacco was. ITA is Imperial Tobacco Australia. It gave more than a million. BATA or British American Tobacco Australia chipped in $2.2 million. And from PML, Philip Morris Limited, a slightly smaller amount: $2.1 million. 

MIKE DAUBE, COUNCIL ON SMOKING AND HEALTH: The campaign is clearly being driven and directed by the Philip Morris company, but it's also clearly being supported by Imperial Tobacco and BAT. It looks simply - the funding just looks to be market share driven.

PETER LLOYD: Philip Morris is one of the world's largest producers of cigarettes. In Australia its corporate base is in Melbourne. Back in May, before the birth of the Alliance of Retailers, its corporate affairs manager Chris Argent was seeking advice from a lobbying and public relations firm called the Civic Group. The discussion was about managing a campaign to stop plain packaging laws during the heat of the federal election. 

CHRIS ARGENT, PHILIP MORRIS (male voiceover): "We envision the election being a major decision point and would like to clearly understand all costs from now until election day."

PETER LLOYD: Philip Morris gives hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations to the Coalition, but Argent was clearly worried about the level of support for his company. 

CHRIS ARGENT (male voiceover): "Please note that contrary to the proposal the Coalition's 'resolve' is not 'strong'. It is at best neutral."

PETER LLOYD: The Civic Group is based here in a prestige building in Melbourne's Collins Street. 

One of its founding owners is Jason Aldworth. In his proposals to Chris Argent, Aldworth recommended that the campaign to stop plain packaging of cigarettes should, "... be forthright - at times even aggressive - in nature (if the campaign fails, you won't have any brands left anyway, so there is no point worrying too much about damage to your brands)." And that it ought to, "Build concern among the targeted decision makers that the campaign will not cease, is likely to increase and that it will extract a political cost."

But Jason Aldworth was worried about working for a cigarette company and the impact.

JASON ALDWORTH, THE CIVIC GROUP (male voiceover): "We would note that the Civic Group currently acts for several bodies likely to resent a registration on the Lobbyists Code for us to represent a tobacco company. In this regard, it will be important for us that any final engagement be of sufficient quantum to make up for the loss of this work."

PETER LLOYD: Significantly, Aldworth's proposal recommended using third parties, including retail groups, to sell the message. The Alliance of Australian Retailers was born. 

CHERYL MOON (August 4): The Alliance is financially supported by three tobacco companies. It's - again depends on how long the campaign goes. There's no single number; it's about how long the campaign is expected to last.

PETER LLOYD: Cheryl Moon's unsteady performance prompted some soul-searching behind the scenes. 

The Civic Group's Rora Furman suggests Cheryl Moon should stick to prepared talking points. "We are upfront on our website, in our media release, the tobacco companies are helping fund our campaign. But that's not the real issue. The real issue is ..."

CHERYL MOON: The Australian Retail Alliance is funded - has funding support from the three cigarette manufacturers in Australia. We're quite open about that. It's not a secret. It will be on all of our websites, it'll be on all of the media that's out there. 

PETER LLOYD: Two days later, advertisements to stop generic packaging hit the airwaves. In the middle of the election campaign, tobacco companies were funding ads from a group purporting to represent the interests of ordinary Australian shopkeepers.

At the end of August, Civic Group sent this invoice to Philip Morris. Top of the bill, a handsome charge for one month's consulting.

Off camera I spoke to Brett Miller, one of the owners of the Civic Group. I showed him these documents. He didn't deny that they were genuine and he confirmed that Philip Morris is paying his company $200,000 a month as a retainer to help manage the Retail Alliance. 

The man from Philip Morris, Chris Argent, has no official connection with the Alliance of Australian Retailers, yet the Civic Group's Rora Furman wrote to him seeking approval on how to phrase responses to messages received on the Alliance website. 

RORA FURMAN, THE CIVIC GROUP (female voiceover): "I'd recommend not responding to emails that are generally rather offensive and/or use particularly colourful language."

PETER LLOYD: And here Furman seeks permission for the Alliance to speak to a reporter.

RORA FURMAN (female voiceover): "You will see there's also on from retailbiz.com - an online retail media outlet - with an inquiry ... It is the sort of media opportunity that Craig (Glasby) tends to do quite well ... Do let me know it you are OK with this and I will set up a time for them to chat ... Rora."

PETER LLOYD: In another email, Chris Argent expresses frustration that the Alliance failed to respond to requests for an interview from Melbourne radio personality Glen Wheeler. 

CHRIS ARGENT, PHILIP MORRIS (male voiceover): "Guys - please see transcript below from MTR (Melbourne Talkback Radio), where Glenn Wheeler claims to have sent emails to AAR asking for an interview. Is this correct, and if so, why was this not brought to our attention?"

PETER LLOYD: I went to Philip Morris to try to speak to Chris Argent.

Well we've tried to speak to Mr Argent by phone, email and now here in person, but to no avail. It seems, according to his staff, that he's not even here. 

Professor Mike Daube was one of the medical experts who recommended plain packaging laws. He believes these documents are possibly the most devastating tobacco industry leak ever seen in Australia. 

MIKE DAUBE: What this tells us is that far from being the innocent retailer's campaign that it pretends to be, this is a campaign that has been developed, masterminded and run to the finest detail by the Philip Morris company. Now this is an international company, and it becomes so clear from these documents that it's been run by the Philip Morris company in association with British American Tobacco and Imperial.

PETER LLOYD: The Alliance of Australian Retailers exists on the web, but in the real world there is little evidence of its bone fides. 

Until two days ago its registered address was in this building, a residential tower block in central Sydney, the owner none other than Cheryl Moon. 

Moon stopped speaking on behalf of the Alliance a few days after appearing on Lateline. 

The furore over tobacco funding of the Alliance has overshadowed the campaign, yet Philip Morris is forging ahead. This is the latest contract between the company and the Civic Group. It's not signed, but it proposes phase two of the campaign.

A new advertising blitz is scheduled to begin this weekend built around the anticipated higher audiences switching onto television coverage of the AFL and rugby league finals matches. One email talks of a budget of $3.97 million. 

MIKE DAUBE: It looks to me as though this campaign has only just started, that we've seen a spend of around $5 million on the first phase, and now there's another $4 million going into the next phase. I think this shows us how desperate the tobacco industry is. They're willing to throw millions and millions, as much as it takes, into opposing plain packaging.

PETER LLOYD: There is also evidence that the US and British parent companies of each tobacco company are paying close attention to what happens in Australia. At Philip Morris last week, there was an international phone hook-up. One of those on the line was John Scruggs, a vice president of the Philip Morris parent company.

The return of the Gillard Government means Labor MPs can expect to hear from Philip Morris.

The Civic Group's Jason Aldworth recommended something akin to a public relations and lobbying war of attrition.

JASON ALDWORTH (male voiceover): "Effective political campaigns only work when the targeted decision makers believe that the campaign will be ongoing and intensive. In short, that the campaign will keep going and keep damaging their political standing unless they change their position."

PETER LLOYD: Mike Daube and other leading lights of the Tobacco Control Lobby will use tonight's revelations to push the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission to take action to stop these advertisements and shut down the campaign to stop plain packaging. If that happens, Philip Morris will almost certainly head to the High Court to plead that it has the right to protect its brand.

Peter Lloyd, Lateline.

LEIGH SALES: And in a statement to Lateline, British American Tobacco Australasia says it continues to proudly support the Alliance of Australian Retailers in their campaign calling for evidence-based regulation and for abandoning the proposal to introduce plain packaging.

Philip Morris has also sent a statement. It says there's nothing new about the fact that Philip Morris Limited supports the efforts of the Alliance of Australian Retailers, urging the Government not to proceed with the proposal for plain packaging. "What is disappointing and concerning is that the documents we understand tonight's program will refer to seem to have been obtained by illegitimate means." 

Imperial Tobacco didn't return numerous calls from Lateline. 

Meanwhile lawyers acting for the public relations company the Civic Group contacted the ABC last night and expressed doubts about the veracity of the documents. 

But it should also be pointed out that when Brett Miller from the Civic Group was shown the documents he didn't deny their authenticity, nor did he in subsequent conversations with our reporter. 

The full statements from the tobacco companies will be posted on our website.

Read statements from the tobacco companies

Read a statement from Philip Morris Limited and a statement from British American Tobacco Australia.

Do you have a comment or a story idea? Get in touch with the Lateline team by clicking here.

Spain to have pictorial warnings in May 2011

Spain will require pictorial warnings on all cigarette packaging as of May, 2011.

The warning sizes will cover about 43 percent of the front of cigarette packages, and about 53 per cent of the back, which include a black border.

Following this move, Spain will become the seventh EU country to require pictorial warnings – Belgium being the first in 2006, followed by Romania and the UK in 2008, Latvia in 2010, and France and Malta in 2011.

Switzerland, Norway and Turkey (non-EU countries) also require pictorial warnings based on the European Commission’s library of 42 images.

Globally, at least 39 countries/jurisdictions require pictorial warnings.

France: Congressman Yves Bur will propose a draft legislation for plain cigarette packs

The announcement by Congressman Yves Bur that he would propose a draft legislation imposing standardized generic packaging for tobacco products, like in Australia has the tobacco control advocates happy, the Health Minister reserved, the tobacco industry  protesting copyright rights under attack and an increased risk of smuggling, tobacconists claiming they would not be able to distinguish between brands :)

Lots of coverage for what is still a draft proposal.

Philippines: graphic warnings are coming

Philippines has finalized requirements so that graphic health information will appear at the top 30% of the front, and the top 60% of the back.  A separate law (which continues in force) requires a 30% text warning to appear on the front.  Thus total messages on the front would be 60% and 60% on the back. 

One of the 9 picture-based messages is on breast cancer.  Philippines is the first country known to require a breast cancer message on cigarette packages.  Congratulations on this important world precedent, as well as on the new requirements generally.

The picture is about the press conference where the Department of Health announced the change. 

Uruguay: look at this toddler smoking (on the front of the pack)

 It is on the front of the pack. The back below

Mongolia: the new warnings are coming (one third of the size front and back)

 Here is the Mongolia National Standard, adopted in 2009 (established by a 2005 law), which requires graphic warnings on one third of the pack (front and back) as of Jan. 1, 2010. See below a picture of two real packs. There is a series of pictures we plan to set up in a gallery asap.

Plain cigarette packs in Australia from July 2012

 

The Australian government has decided that by July 2012 plain packaging will apply to cigarette packs. See what they would look like thanks to the Cancer Council. The warning covers 90% of the pack with 10% at the bottom for the brand name.

WHO creates new pictorial health warnings database

The World Health Organization has just published an online database of pictorial health warnings. The database is categorized by topic and by Party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Uruguay: Uruguay now leads the pack with graphic health warnings covering 80% of the cigarette pack: what about Africa?

Uruguay has a population of about 3,3 million people but they have been able to implement this drastic evolution: earlier the size of the warning (on the right) was already at 50%, now on the left it's 80%. The pictures are on both sides of the pack. Congratulations Uruguay!

Source: Eduardo Bianco via Rob Cunningham. Below a pack of the Fiesta brand with the new 80% warnings on the back and on the front.

Norway: Norway announces graphic warnings

The announcement is on the site of the Norwegian Health Ministry . They are taken from the EU warnings (as the one above). Here on a pdf document (slow to open). I wonder how long they'll remain in place before being eventually replaced as we know rotating warnings is important to maintain their effectiveness.

Uruguay: New graphic warnings on 80% of the pack. CONGRATULATIONS!

Rob Cunningham writes (and we totally agree):  Congratulations to Uruguay which yesterday on September 1, 2009 finalized Ministerial Ordonnance 466/2009 to require a new set of six graphic warnings to cover 80% of the front and back of the package.  Uruguay will have the largest cigarette package warnings in the world.  The new graphic images will be required to appear on packages 180 days from the issuance of the Ordonnance, or March 1, 2010.  What Uruguay has done is a very important achievement.

Malaysia: put Adnan on cigarette packs, not hideous pictures

Maybe something that should be tested: including "positive" pictures along the frightening ones and see how they compare. Could Adnan who quit smoking at 50 be a role model?
Source: New Straits Times

Spain to place graphic warnings on cigarette packs

Spain said Tuesday it plans to force tobacco companies to put gruesome images on cigarette packets to warn smokers of the health risks, a measure already introduced in some other European countries.

European Commission will look at which pictures work best to help smokers quit

The European Commission is planning a new study aimed at developing better graphic images to warn of the damaging effects of tobacco, in a bid to encourage more European Union countries to put the pictures on cigarette packets.

Haravgi-Nina Papadoulaki, spokeswoman for the EC’s commissioner for health and consumer protection, said that, although the commission developed a library of pictorial health warnings in 2005, only three European Union member states have started putting the images on cigarette packets: the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Latvia.

From the BMJ

Bangladesh: graphic health warnings requested by a human chain

The present written tobacco health warning is of no use as most of the people in Bangladesh are illiterate. So, graphic health warnings for tobacco products are much needed for mass understanding of the messages regarding the damages done by tobacco.  The demand was made by the Bangladesh Anti-Tobacco Alliance and Madok Drabya-O- Nesha Birodhi Council (Manobik). The human chain took place at Shahbagh in front of the National Museum on 04 April 2009 at 11 a.m.

(More Picture and Pess release English)

China: China's anti-tobacco fighters demand warning pictures on cigarettes

Anti-tobacco advocates are looking for support on the internet (via the net citizens or netizens) according to this article published in the People's Daily.
Source: People's Daily Online

World’s Largest Cigarette Package Health Warnings – Historical Evolution

With Mauritius enacting graphic health warnings that will take 65% of the surface of a pack, the Canadian expert Rob Cunningham gives us a short chronology
listing each occasion where a new world precedent was set in terms of the size of cigarette package health warnings.   The listing below refers to size as an average of the package front and back.  The listing includes the year of implementation.

20%     Canada, 1989
30%     Poland, 1998
35%     Canada, 1994 (including border)
50%     Canada, 2001
56%     Belgium, 2003 (including border)
60%     Australia, 2006
65%     Mauritius, 2009

Mauritius Island: Graphic warnings to figure on cigarette packs sold in Mauritius from June 1st 2009

From the blog of Véronique Le Clézio (with all our congratulations):

The new amendments to the tobacco law and the 8 graphic warning images were presented to the media during a press conference at the Ministry of Health today, the 12th of February 2009.

 

These graphic warnings will figure on the cigarette packs sold in Mauritius as from the 1st of June 2009. Mauritius will then be the first country in Africa to implement article 11, with a world record of 65% of the surface of the pack!

 

This is the result of the earnest collaboration and hard work of ViSa and the Ministry of Health, and also thanks to the excellent help and support of the FCA.

Iran: here come the graphic health warnings

Ali Abdolahinia, M.D, Research Manager for the Iranian Anti Tobacco Association explains:

"The first series of tobacco products with Health Warning pictures have been introduced to the Iranian market. Within the course of the next few months, similar pictures will be imprinted on all locally produced as well as imported tobacco products. The pictures will cover some 50% of both the front and the back of the cigarette packs, most of which concern the diseases related to tobacco consumption."

Malaysia: graphic warnings to appear in March

The text says "Cigarettes cause neck cancer

Source: AsiaOne Health

WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY 2009 Theme: Tobacco Health Warnings

The World Health Organization (WHO) selected "Tobacco Health Warnings" as the theme for the next World No Tobacco Day, which will take place on 31 May 2009.

Tobacco health warnings appear on packs of cigarettes and are among the strongest defenses against the global epidemic of tobacco.

WHO particularly approves of tobacco health warnings that contain both pictures and words because they are the most effective at convincing people to quit. Such pictorial warnings appear in more than a dozen countries.

On World No Tobacco Day 2009, and throughout the following year, WHO will encourage governments to adopt tobacco health warnings that meet all the criteria for maximal effectiveness, including that they cover more than half of the pack, appear on both the front and back of the pack and contain pictures.

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control obligates its more than 160 countries parties to require "health warnings describing the harmful effects of tobacco use" on packs of tobacco and their outside packaging and recommends that the warnings contain pictures. WHO works through its Tobacco Free Initiative department to help the parties to meet their obligation, providing technical and other assistance.

As WHO Director General Margaret Chan says, "We hold in our hands the solution to the global tobacco epidemic that threatens the lives of one billion men, women and children during this century."

Tobacco health warnings are a big part of the solution about which Dr Chan speaks.

Please return soon to this website for a richer explanation of why the World Health Organization chose "Tobacco Health Warnings" as the theme for World No Tobacco Day 2009 and about what the warnings -- pictorial ones in particular -- can do to fight tobacco.

On World No Tobacco Day 2009, and throughout the following year, WHO will encourage governments to adopt tobacco health warnings that meet all the criteria for maximal effectiveness, including that they cover more than half of the pack, appear on both the front and back of the pack and contain pictures.

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control obligates its more than 160 countries parties to require "health warnings describing the harmful effects of tobacco use" on packs of tobacco and their outside packaging and recommends that the warnings contain pictures. WHO works through its Tobacco Free Initiative department to help the parties to meet their obligation, providing technical and other assistance.

As WHO Director General Margaret Chan says, "We hold in our hands the solution to the global tobacco epidemic that threatens the lives of one billion men, women and children during this century."

Tobacco health warnings are a big part of the solution about which Dr Chan speaks.

Please return soon to this website for a richer explanation of why the World Health Organization chose "Tobacco Health Warnings" as the theme for World No Tobacco Day 2009 and about what the warnings -- pictorial ones in particular -- can do to fight tobacco.

New Zealand: Images credited with helping 170,000 stub out bad habit

Two years ago, when the introduction of photographic health warnings on cigarette packets were announced, a quarter of New Zealanders smoked. Now, almost a year after the graphic reminders of the health risks of smoking appeared on every tobacco product sold in this country, that has dropped to one in five Kiwis.

"It's a huge gain. It equates to 170,000 less smokers," the Ministry of Health's national director of tobacco control, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, said.

Philippines: Congressmen got cash to oppose graphic warnings

A very interesting article.
 Source: ABS-CBN

Inhaling Fear: why Martin Lindstrom does not believe in graphic warnings

It is an OpEd in the New York Times. I am not convinced. The industry knows better and they definitely oppose graphic health warnings. I wonder what Lindstrom has to gain: the pleasure of being a contrarian and promoting his branding guru image? Frankly he should look elsewhere to boost his ego.

Here is a blog that disapproves (but watch for the techno-science language). Taking the industry test is simpler. One can also wonder why the New York Times chose to publish this stuff as the scientific basis is very limited (to say the least). A preemptive strike?

India postpones the introduction of graphic health warnings until May 2009

Supposedly it is because the economic recession and the warnings would be too much for the tobacco industry. A sad example of the industry's political muscle when India is going to host the next World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Mumbai in March 2009.
Source: The Times of India

About plain packaging: Kill the tobacco industry or it will keep killing

Simon Chapman and Becky Freeman published this opinion about plain packaging in the Sidney Morning Herald.

UK: An opinion against graphic warnings

Graphic warnings are coming to the UK and  Times columnist Mike Hume really dislikes them. His reasoning and arguments are not new but from time to time it is useful to keep track of them.

Latest news from Rob Cunningham: Picture health warnings required by 23 countries/jurisdictions

Rob provides us (as usual) with the latest information. I noticed the opening of a new site called the Tobacco Labelling Resource Centre (too bad it is not in a blog format as it would be much easier to navigate and keep informed about).

UK: Towards plain packaging?

UK is considering plan packaging. The Tobacco industry is worried.
Source: The Observer

In preparation for COP 3

Draft guidelines for implementation of article 11, packaging and labeling,  ici en français

Here are the FCTC preparatory documents already available (unfortunately only in pdf) for the preparation of COP 3 that will take place in Durban (November 17-22).