JULY 22 — We refer to the opinion piece entitled “Final nail in the coffin: Latest Australian data confirms failure of plain packaging” by Jo Furnival.
Now let’s be clear about something. Tobacco kills. No one is rebutting that.
The opinion piece by Furnival is a classic tobacco industry rebuttal on the world’s war against tobacco, whereby isolated anomalies in data are used to argue that plain packaging does not work or has a negative impact.
These examples should not detract from most of the evidence that points to the fact that the policy is indeed working as intended.
The evidence on standardised packaging has been systematically evaluated to significantly reduce the appeal of tobacco products.
Australia’s successes, especially in plain packaging, are a textbook example of effective tobacco control. The following points were not mentioned in the author’s opinion piece.
Fewer Australians are smoking daily than ever before. The proportion of people smoking daily has fallen in recent years and is now at 11 per cent compared with 12.2 per cent in 2016 and 24 per cent in 1991.
In 2019, current smokers were smoking an average of 13 cigarettes per day. Although this hasn’t changed since 2016, it has fallen from 16 cigarettes per day in 2010.
Fewer Australians are exposed to tobacco smoke at home regularly. In 2019, about one in 50 (2.1 per cent) households with dependent children had a household member who smoked daily inside the home — much lower than the one in five (19.7 per cent) in 2001.
The data clearly speaks for itself on Australia’s combined efforts, one that includes plain packaging, to combat tobacco smoking.
These are clear successes that Malaysia and other countries are planning to emulate.
On the other hand, can we please not rebut that the recreational use of nicotine — whether in e-cigarettes or in other tobacco products — creates an undeniable dependency?
Would you let your child play with a dangerous toy just because it is 95 per cent less harmful? I certainly would not.
Plain packaging of tobacco increasing illicit trade is also an unsupported claim by the tobacco industry.
Many of the quoted studies (which by the way are supported by industry giants) have been shown to have significant flaws in its methodology.
I agree with the author that governments must make it easier for smokers to quit, not harder. However, it is also important for governments to ensure that the people and our young ones do not pick up smoking in the first place.
Governments are trying, guided by the MPOWER strategy, which is a multi-pronged approach that aims to monitor tobacco use, protect people from tobacco smoke, offer help to quit, warn about the dangers of tobacco, enforce bans and raise taxes.
In reference to the author’s statement on how policymakers should not draw their own conclusions based on the Australian experiment and the WHO bandwagon, rest be assured that the actions of policymakers in SEA are based on collective in-depth evidence on tobacco and a clear conscience.
* Dr Arunah Chandran is a member of LeAdNCD, a group of public health professionals who are passionate about building capacity in prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in Malaysia.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
