The Government has welcomed the conclusion of European measures to standardise all tobacco products with larger, more graphic health warnings.
Moves to do so were advanced during the Irish presidency in the first half of this year when agreement of the EU member states was achieved. Backing of the European Parliament in October led to final agreement this week which means that health warnings on cigarette packets will double. Picture warnings will be placed on both sides of packets.
From 2016 the latest directive will introduce a ban on tobacco products containing flavours such as fruit or vanilla. Menthol cigarettes will be banned four years later.
The new measure also allows member states to go further, removing all logos, trademarks and marketing designs. The Irish Government plans to introduce standard packaging early in the new year as announced by Minister for Health Dr James Reilly.
“The evidence is clear,” he said. “Larger warnings with graphic pictures deter young people from starting to smoke and encourage smokers to quit.”
Lobbying
He said there was intensive lobbying from the tobacco industry to reduce the size of the warnings to 50 per cent.
“The Taoiseach and I wrote to the MEPs in the European People’s Party, the largest grouping in the European Parliament, encouraging them to reject this amendment.”
Tobacco consumption remains the largest avoidable health threat in Ireland and the European Union, he added.
“There are approximately 700,000 deaths from tobacco related illnesses in the European Union each year – 5,200 of them in Ireland.
“Half, or 1 in 2, of all long-term smokers will die from smoking related diseases. This is a stark statistic. There is no doubt that if tobacco were discovered today, knowing what we know about its lethal effects, it would not be a legal product.”
Source: Dan Keenan, Irish Times, 19/12/13
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