Australia rolls out world's first plain cigarette pack law
First-of-its-kind measure introduced in effort to strip cigarettes of associations of glamour and stop youngsters from striking up habit
A law forcing tobacco firms to sell cigarettes in plain packets came into effect in Australia yesterday in an effort to strip any glamour from smoking and prevent young people from taking up the habit.
The new law, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, came into force despite a vigorous legal challenge by big tobacco, which argued that the legislation infringed its intellectual property rights by banning trademarks.
All cigarettes will now have to be sold in identical, olive-brown packets bearing the same typeface and largely covered with graphic health warnings.
A cashier at a Sydney newsagent said many customers reported finding the new packaging, which must feature graphic images such as a gangrenous foot, mouth cancer or a skeletal man dying of cancer, off-putting.
Sanjid Amatya, a cashier at a Sydney newsagent, said smokers were asking to pick and choose the images on their packets.
"Some of them don't care what the picture is," Amatya said.