World No Tobacco Day 2016: Get ready for plain packaging

World No Tobacco Day was introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a most recognized event all over the world. The aim was to make people aware of all the harmful effects and health complications that arise by the use of tobacco or smoking, and to make the world tobacco-free.

A range of other health related events are also organized by the WHO such as AIDS Day, World Health Day, Blood Donor Day, Cancer Day, Asthma Day, Hypertension Day etc to make world free of diseases and its problems. All the events are organized and celebrated throughout the world. World No Tobacco Day was first celebrated on 7th of April in the year 1988 at 40th WHO Anniversary and later it was declared to be celebrated on 31st of May every year.

World No Tobacco Day is celebrated to encourage people to reduce or completely stop the consumption of tobacco consumption in any form all over the world. Variety of global organizations involved in this campaign such as state governments, public health organizations and etc organizes various public awareness programmes locally.

World No Tobacco Day 2016 Theme

For this year’s World No Tobacco Day, WHO and the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control are calling on countries to get ready for plain (standardized) packaging of tobacco products.

Tobacco packaging is a mobile billboard promoting consumption of tobacco products. Tobacco packaging makes products more attractive, advertises and promotes tobacco consumption, distracts from health warnings and deceives people into thinking that some products are less harmful than others. If you strip back the decoration, gloss and misleading elements of tobacco packaging, you are left with little more than a box of deadly and addictive products that kills approximately 6 million people a year and harms the health of many more. Plain packaging helps reveal the grim reality of tobacco products.

What is plain packaging?

Plain packaging (also called standardized packaging) refers to “measures to restrict or prohibit the use of logos, colours, brand images or promotional information on packaging other than brand names and product names displayed in a standard colour and font style (plain packaging)”.

Plain packaging has also been described as packaging that is “black and white or two other contrasting colours, as prescribed by national authorities; nothing other than a brand name, a product name and/or manufacturer’s name, contact details and the quantity of product in the packaging, without any logos or other features apart from health warnings, tax stamps and other government-mandated information or markings; prescribed font style and size; and standardized shape, size and materials. There should be no advertising or promotion inside or attached to the package or on individual cigarettes or other tobacco products.”

Guidelines for Implementation of Article 11 (Packaging and labelling of tobacco products) and Article 13 (Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship) of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) recommend that Parties consider adoption of plain packaging.

Goals of plain packaging

The goals of plain packaging include:

1. Reducing the attractiveness of tobacco products
2. Eliminating the effects of tobacco packaging as a form of advertising and promotion
3. Addressing package design techniques that may suggest that some products are less harmful than others
4. Increasing the noticeability and effectiveness of health warnings.

Harmful effects of tobacco consumption

Tobacco contains nicotine, the most powerful drug. It has the same effect on our brains as cocaine. It releases adrenaline which gives pleasure. This feeling of pleasure makes the person addicted to it. Everyone has his or her own reasons to start smoking. For some it is just a matter of attitude and style, they find it COOL. Others start smoking because their friends and family members smoke. According to the statistics, 9 out of 10 people start smoking before the age of 18 and it becomes an addiction.

1. Each time you smoke, the toxins travel from the cigarette into your blood. These toxins increase the blood pressure and the heart rate. They cause narrowing of arteries and makes your heart weak.

2. Smokers are at a higher risk of having stomach cancer or ulcer. Smoking also destroys your liver.

3. One of the most dangerous effects of nicotine on the body is the types of cancers that it can cause such as throat cancer, lung cancer, cervical cancer.

4. The poisonous chemicals present in the cigarette prevent the adequate flow of oxygen to the skin. This causes premature aging and wrinkles and thus makes our skin look dull and lifeless.

5. Smoking increases the risk of osteoporosis. Your bones become weak and fragile. You must have across older people who become bent over – the reason is smoking.

6. Smoking also has a great impact on reproduction and fertility and can affect sexual health.

For men, it causes impotency as it distorts the blood supply to the penis. It also reduces the sperm count and causes testicular cancer.

For women, it reduces fertility. Smoking during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage or premature birth. It also affects the health of the child.

Can pictorial warnings reduce tobacco consumption? 

Enlarged pictorial warnings on cigarette packets, showing terrifying effects of tobacco consumption on health, may be a welcome step towards educating people about the perils of smoking on this World No Tobacco Day.

“With a decline in smoking levels among the high-income countries, tobacco companies are increasingly relying on developing economies, especially in the south-east Asia region — with nearly 246 million people in its 11 countries continuing to smoke tobacco and nearly 290 million using it in smokeless forms — to bolster its market presence,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO regional director for Southeast Asia, in a statement.

“Tobacco is leading to the death of 1.3 million people across south-east Asia every year – the equivalent of 150 fatalities per hour,” Singh added.

The Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules, 2008 mandated that all tobacco products – chewable or otherwise – “were required to display graphic pictures, such as pictures of diseased lungs and the text smoking kills or tobacco kills in English.”

Though India developed and implemented many such tobacco control legislation, it failed to curtail the widespread usage of tobacco products by children, youth and adults.

“The message that ‘tobacco kills’ isn’t getting through with the current packaging and plain packaging is a good way to amplify it and disrupt the psychology of tobacco consumption,” Singh noted.

Tobacco kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life - Brooke Shield Click To Tweet

Recent studies conducted by countries that introduced plain packaging proved that the aesthetic impact of plain packaging is significant and that it has tangible effect on the desirability of tobacco products.

Australia became the first country to successfully adopt plain packaging in 2012 and has since seen a significant decline in smoking.

Countries like France, Ireland and Britain have also followed suit and passed legislation that makes plain packaging mandatory from this year.

“Plain packaging is one of the easiest ways to help our friends and family live longer and healthier lives and is an initiative that will only gain momentum,” Singh noted.

The Supreme Court recently ordered cigarette producers to comply with the health ministry’s new regulation mandating an increase in the size of the pictorial warning to 85 percent of the front and back panels of cigarette packets.

Doctors and economists have given a thumbs up to the new regulations by WHO on World No Tobacco Day.

Australia became the first country to successfully adopt plain packaging in 2012 Click To Tweet

With almost one million people dying due to direct and passive smoking in India, medico S.K. Paira believed quitting tobacco is much easier than other addictions.

“Smoking creates mental dependency while alcohol and drugs create physical dependency in which withdrawal symptoms are fatal. Mental determination is the best way to give up smoking,” Paira told IANS.

Admitting that the overpowering craving for tobacco makes regular smokers overlook health warnings, psychiatrist Manoj Sharma felt that the enlarged pictorial warning has to be complemented with grass-root level awareness for reducing tobacco consumption.

“Education at the school level is necessary for creating awareness about the ill-effects of smoking. Reducing tobacco consumption depends on the interplay of these two factors,” Sharma said.

Also Read:  Quit Smoking to Live Longer!

World No Tobacco Day Quotes

• “Giving up tobacco is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.” Mark Twain
• “Tobacco kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life.” Brooke Shield
• “The True Face of Tobacco Is disease, death and horror- not the glamour and sophistication the pushers in the tobacco industry try to portray.” David Byrne
• “Much smoking kills live men and cures dead swine.” George D. Prentice
• “The best way to stop smoking is to just stop – no ifs, ands or butts.” Edith Zittler
• “Cigarettes are killers that travel in packs.” Author Unknown
• “Quoting like Tobacco is the dirty habit to which i am devoted.” Carolyn Heilbrun