Government urged to act quickly on plain cigarette packaging

Cigarette packs on display in Sydney, Australia, the place branding-cost-free tobacco packaging was introduced in 2012. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Photos

The government has been urged not to drag its feet over the introduction of plain packaging for cigarettes in a letter from 600 clinicians, such as several leaders in public overall health.

Public overall health minister Jane Ellison told parliament in April that she would carry forward draft laws by the finish of April. She was responding to a evaluation by Sir Cyril Chantler into the health advantages of plain packs which, she explained, produced “a compelling situation that if standardised packaging were launched, it would be quite most likely to have a constructive impact on public overall health”.

The Chantler report said the evidence showed that packs without branding or marketing would entice fewer younger people to try out smoking, even though the effect would be “modest”.

But, say the authorities whose letter is published in the British Health care Journal, that was two months in the past and absolutely nothing has took place. There is a reasonably brief window of chance prior to the up coming basic election, they warn. The government has committed to a 6-week consultation time period and will require to notify the EU of the draft rules – a procedure which can take up to 6 months. “We for that reason ask you to confirm that they will be published in the next few weeks.”

The letter is signed by 600 medical doctors, nurses and other NHS overall health pros. Among them are Dr Nicholas Hopkins, consultant chest physician and chair of a specialist lung disease advisory group of the British Thoracic Society, Anna Gilmore, professor of public health in Bath and John Ashton, president of the Uk Faculty of Public Health.

“Smoking associated illness remains the principal result in of preventable deaths in the Uk, killing much more than a hundred 000 individuals every 12 months. t is as a result needed and logical to end the advertising of cigarettes and tobacco products through packaging,” they publish.

There has currently been a public consultation on plain packaging – which is taken to mean packs with out brand advertising but covered instead with well being warnings. It ran from April to August 2012. There had been higher hopes among anti-smoking campaigners that the government would introduce plain packaging, but in July 2013 it announced that it would wait for proof from Australia, which introduced it in the earlier yr. The Chantler review assessed that evidence.

Labour’s shadow public wellness minister, Luciana Berger, said there was no excuse for additional delay. The letter, she said,”is an extraordinary step for hundreds of concerned well being experts to consider.

“Even when MPs demanded answers in the Commons on Tuesday, the Minister, Jane Ellison, wouldn’t set a timetable. It is turning out to be yet another instance of David Cameron caving in to vested interests and standing up for the wrong people.”​

The Department of Well being stated the approach was on track. “We are minded to introduce rules for standardised packaging of tobacco merchandise subject to a final, brief consultation so interested events can give us their thoughts on the detailed proposal,” it stated in a statement.

“The consultation is now currently being finalised and will be published shortly.”

Government urged to act quickly on plain cigarette packaging