Tobacco Facts.

Besides common anti-tobacco regulations, already approved or considered by the governments of many countries, there are other ordinances that rise many questions regarding their efficacy in protecting nonsmokers and cutting the rates of smokers. So, we decided to review the most controversial regulations:

Plain packaging requirement

A highly controversial ban on using any colors, images, logos, or advertising texts on cigarette packages was adopted in Australia last week. It is also pending in UK government and some other nations. The ban is a very dubious regulation, since it divided the public into two parties. Whereas ones claim the ban would protect teenagers from being lured by colorful packs, others state it would be an easy prey for the fraudsters.

Tobacco is the considered to be the most trafficked and falsified product across the globe. According to estimates, legal businesses and governments are lacking hundreds of millions dollars in lost profits, and adoption of a generic packaging measure would simply make things even more difficult.

Nevertheless, in a style common for public health groups – and many officials – they are ignorant to the problems the measure can cause, believing that they are saving teenagers and younger adults from taking up smoking, but in reality, they appear to turn blind eye to the problem of the black market which would proliferate from such efforts.

Ban on point-of-sale displays of tobacco products

Today, there is a clear lack of reliable data to prove that barring businesses from displaying tobacco products could decrease smoking rates in teenagers or adults. Iceland is the only country in the world where displays of tobacco products were prohibited more than 10 years ago, has not reported any considerable change in the smoking rates.

The majority of smokers think the ban is intended only for offending and stigmatizing them. As it is evident that the measure would have no impact on current smokers, who will just keep being loyal to one brand, the ban would eliminate fair market competition, making it impossible for tobacco companies to communicate with adult smokers.

At the other hand, teenagers are well-known rule-breakers and restricting smoking could only make it more appealing for them.

Moreover, prohibiting displays of tobacco products could simply destroy many small businesses, which have no opportunity to provide enough info about new products, while large stores would simply employ a person to let the smokers know about the latest products.

Ban on sales of 10-cigarette packs

This absurd measure is currently pending in the UK House of Commons. Prohibiting sales of 10-cigarette packs would not reduce smoking rates, but only severely limit adult cigarette-lovers freedom of choice and could, in contrary to its major air, cause a growth in the quantity of cigarettes smoked. Ireland officials banned sales of smaller cigarette packs several years ago, and last year Sunday Independent Newspaper published a report suggesting that average number of cigarettes puffed each day increased from 16 to 17shortly after the implementation of the ban.