Sydney, Australia, Dec 7 (EFE).- The Australian parliament passed a new tobacco control law on Thursday, mandating health risk warnings on every cigarette stick to encourage people to kick the butt in a country where smoking claims over 20,500 lives every year.
The measure is part of the new Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) Law 2023, which will come into effect on April 1, 2024.
A range of new graphic warnings will be placed on cigarette packages under the new law in Australia, where tobacco is the leading cause of premature death and disability, as 10.1 percent of 26 million people smoke.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, tobacco smoking is one of the largest preventable causes of death and disease in the Oceanic country.
In a report released in December last year, the bureau said smoking was estimated to kill almost 20,500 Australians a year, which accounts for 13 percent of all deaths.
“Overall, the proportion of adults who were current daily smokers has fallen over the last decade, from 16.1 percent in 2011–12 to 10.1 percent in 2021–22,” the bureau said in the report.
Australian Health Minister Mark Butler said the existing graphic health warnings had lost their impact because people had become so familiar with them.
“Some images are designed to shock; they are designed to repel and put people off using cigarettes,” Butler said as he unveiled a set of proposed new graphic health warnings to be printed on cigarette and vape packages under the new laws.
The ministry said there would be a transition period from April 1, 2024, to April 20, 2025, for the industry to be able to change their products and carry the dissuasive warnings on cigarette sticks.
He said there would be another transition period of three months from Apr. 1, 2025, to the end of June 2025, for retailers to phase out old stock.
“And from July 1, 2025, we would be completely in the new world. We need to give the industry time to change their production lines and the retail sector time to change their inventories.”
Falsely calling cigarettes less harmful or including menthol or other elements that make tobacco more palatable will also be prohibited.
The law also prohibits the use of attractive names on vaping products, as well as online advertising of conventional or electronic cigarettes.
Australia, which has imposed heavy taxes on tobacco for years, was the first country in to make it mandatory to sell cigarettes in olive green packaging with health risks printed in bold fonts. EFE
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