It was suggested today that by 2020, cigarette manufacturers will be forced to sell their product in plain packaging, part of host of measures to be introduced to reduce the number of smokers over the next 10 years.
Health secretary Andy Burnham announced a series of commitments the UK Government would be making to reduce smoking in Britain, pledging to cut the percentage of the British population who smoke from 21% to 10% over the next decade.
In addition to getting people to stop smoking, he also said that they were determined to reduce the number of young people who begin smoking. At the moment 200,000 young people take up the habit each year. Mr. Burnham said that particular focus would be paid to reducing the amount of cheap tobacco that is smuggled into Britain on the black market, as well as banning the sales of tobacco through vending machines, often a source of cigarettes for teenagers.
The packaging on cigarettes will be totally plain, with just the brand name shown in text. Mr Burnham described the packets as ‘the only remaining method’ for advertising, after mainstream advertising for the product was banned.
The law over public smoking will also be reviewed, with the possibility raised that areas like entrances to buildings, some homes and cars might also fall under the smoking ban.
Pro-smoking group Forest called the existing laws ‘draconian’ and expressed concerns that increased restrictions on smoking would further increase the decline in trade in pubs and clubs.
However the Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson, who has made tackling smoking a key goal of his time in the role, vowed that they would continue to push harder for a tobacco-free Britain and warned that the momentum gained after the smoking ban was introduced must not be lost.