The AIPA has a misguided notion that plain packaging of tobacco is a “regressive” measure when actually the opposite is true. Plain packaging is a progressive, cutting-edge measure to curb preventable deaths from smoking-related diseases. International guidelines on how tobacco should be packaged and labelled – including plain packaging – are provided in the tobacco treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) being implemented by 180 countries. Malaysia is well on track to comply with the guidelines as it moves forward with plain packaging of tobacco. To date, four countries (Australia, Ireland, UK and France) have already passed legislation on plain packaging, with several countries in various stages of development and adoption of similar laws, including New Zealand, Norway, Canada, and Singapore.

These countries are in advanced stages of low smoking prevalence and are hastening the declines to curb their disease and death burden from tobacco. Australia introduced plain packaging in 2012 and has since then seen the largest decline in smoking rates, now among the lowest in the world, including a significant decrease between 2011 and 2014 in the proportion of 12-to-17-year-olds who were smokers (from 7 per cent down to 5 per cent). More than three years after Australia implemented plain packaging, there is no evidence of the socio-economic doom-and-gloom hyped by AIPA in its claim that plain packaging will “steer intellectual property rights protection in a backward direction both economically and socially”. Another misleading claim is that “plain packaging on tobacco will set the precedent for other consumer products”.

In reality, no other product has been subject to plain packaging in Australia or other countries that have approved standardised packaging of tobacco.

This is simply because there is no other product as lethal as tobacco that kills two out of every three of its long-term users. AIPA also claims that plain packaging will cause a spike in contraband cigarettes—the same line touted by the tobacco industry when Australia was preparing its plain packaging legislation. However, this has not been Australia’s experience, reducing this claim to mere scare-mongering. Since the AIPA has official NGO status with the Asean Secretariat, it should know that the Asean has declared tobacco control among its priority health issues, adopted at the 6^th ASEAN Health Ministers meeting in 2012 towards achieving the Healthy Asean 2020 vision. In Malaysia, the statistics on smoking are grim — there are five times more adolescent girls smoking compared to adult female smokers, and about 30 per cent of 13-to-15-year-old boys are smoking. The government needs to do much more to curb increasing smoking prevalence among minors and vulnerable groups. Plain packaging is international best practice and the way forward. By removing the attraction of cigarette packaging and giving prominence to the health warnings that provide truthful information about the harms of tobacco, plain packaging of tobacco will help stop the 50 children who start smoking every day in Malaysia and help the 126,000 Malaysian children and 4.1 million Malaysian adults who smoke to quit. The Ministry of Health should remain firm and not be discouraged by misleading claims made about plain packaging. Plain packaging of tobacco is needed to protect the most precious resource of the country – people’s health and the future generation.

 * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.