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An excellent source of information on “Tobacco in Australia” is the website, with that title, that I have added to my blogroll under the heading “Science”. DP points out to me that one chapter deals with the “plain packaging” legislation – including a reference to a paper written by DP and myself. Worth a look [...] One of the ludicrous complaints about the so called “plain packaging” rules on cigarettes it that they make it harder to select a sought-after brand in a shop. That can only be true if the shop-assistant is illiterate. The brand and brand variety is indicated clearly on the front as well as top and base of the cigarette [...] Phillip Morris have apologised to the Czechs for presenting, as a business case in favour of smoking, that a financial benefit from smoking is that it kills people early thereby saving the state money on health care and pensions. Of course they should not have apologised for this since the claim is definitely true [...] In a study funded by Phillip Morris our friendly neighbourhood carcinogen retailers are wailing that their business has been adversely affected by the plain packaging laws on cigarettes. It takes them longer to serve customers and they give customers the wrong brand more frequently. They didn’t even get a chance to lobby for subsidies to [...] I have acquired something of a reputation as the economist who is obsessed with the harm of tobacco products. “There he goes again….” There might be an element of truth to this but maybe, because it reflects a reality, it is a relatively healthy obsession. I’ve been reading a report by the OECD (2012) on [...] One of my less universally popular posts was the suggestion to only supply addictive cigarette products via pharmacies on the basis of medical prescriptions that depended on patients having significant cotinine levels in their urine. This proposal would eliminate cigarette consumption by the time the current generation of smokers expires since only nicotine addicts would [...] I am travelling in Asia but was delighted to read here that the legal carcinogen producers have lost their bid to show that the plain packaging legislation breaches the Australian constitution – these included carcinogen producers supplying the Australian market and one targeting Japanese citizens. It is big news even in the country I am [...] Walking across the LaTrobe University campus is a health hazard – particularly in the central Agora area* – because smokers inflict damaging consequences of their nicotine addiction habit on non-smokers by breathing cigarette smoke over them. It is not being prissy or faking an excessive concern – the US Surgeon General showed that no level [...] Here is a podcast I gave on the plain packaging issue. Here is a new quality report on this issue. (1517) Some of the best data in Australia on the tobacco industry is expensive to purchase and mainly intended for use by the industry itself. It is obviously of interest for those concerned with reducing cigarette smoking. Cigarettes are, by far, the biggest component of tobacco use in Australia – their retail sales in 2010 were [...] An excellent, balanced account of the implications of plain packaging by Euromonitor’s Don Hedley The PP legislation a frontal assault on the decades of familiarity consumers have developed with particular brands. An attack on the culture of smoking that will fall heavily on major brands. An interesting point I had not picked up is that Canada [...] In this paper I wrote with David Prentice we say yes though it is difficult to say by how much because there have been no previous trials of this policy device. The policy is however essentially a tightening of opportunities to market cigarettes. We therefore use the industrial organisation literature and evidence from two previous phases [...] The carcinogen producers and their allies must have felt a cold blast of terror creep up their anterior regions when comparisons were made between their tobacco products and Ratsak. Their legal counsel pointed out that more modest poison warnings on Ratsak are replaced by stronger warnings on fags. It is a chilling and apt analogy [...] Direct evidence on the effects of plain packaging on cigarette demands is impossible to obtain since the policy measure has never been tried. I am preparing some work on plain packaging and found useful insights either directly (or indirectly by following related web links) from this excellent Guardian article by Ben Goodacre. As is well [...] Deloitte were employed by the “big 3″ in Australian legal carcinogen sales (Phillip Morris, BAT, Imperial Tobacco) to work out the transaction costs imposed on retailers and customers by the recently-passed “plain packaging” legislation for cigarettes. Their report suggests total annual costs of $460 million or $34,000 per retailer. This covers the costs of vendors [...] My general attitude to the plain packaging legislation is that it can do no harm if your interest is in curtailing cigarette consumption. It might not be very effective but it might be somewhat effective. So I support the legislation. The carcinogen producers do not, of course, support it which makes me suspicious that it [...] I was interested in reports of a research study suggesting that nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs) were no more effective in helping smokers to quit their habits than simply going ‘cold turkey’. People had the same probabilities of relapsing into nicotine addiction even were they using NRTs even if they were receiving counseling to help break [...] In 1945 72 per cent of Australian men aged 16 and above and 26 per cent of women smoked. By 1976 male smoking had dropped to 43 per cent of malesbut female smoking had increased to 33 per cent of females. Male smoking has declined ever since and in 2007 (the latest year for which [...] China is the world’s largest tobacco market. The Chinese Government is addressing the tobacco problem but the response is probably not enough. Here is a paper I wrote with Bao Jia Tan on tobacco control policies in China. (155) I am trying to get some thoughts together on the recently passed ‘plain packaging’ legislation in Australia. Comments very welcome on these notes which are based on a relatively quick Goggle search. From December 2012 cigarettes in Australia will only be able to be sold in ‘plain packaging’. Government legislation will force [...] |
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