Thailand implements tobacco plain packaging
Date:2019-1-10 15:55:45 Clicks:366 【Font Size:
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Thailand’s Ministry of Health gazetted the regulation on plain packaging for cigarette products in December 2018, indicating that Thailand will be the first country in Asia adopting plain packaging.
The regulation will become effective on 10 September 2019. Since 9 December 2019, all tobacco products will be required to meet the standards of plain packaging. Under the new regulation, the cigarette packs will be in drab brown colour without any trademark and logo of tobacco brand, and display the text of brand in pale grey with standardized font and size. Meanwhile, a set of 10 pictorial health warnings will be prescribed. The pictorial health warnings will cover 85% of front and back surfaces of cigarette packs, while textual warnings of the tobacco hazards will cover 60% of the side areas.
Thai government has been consistently working on strengthening the tobacco control effort. For example, pictorial health warnings are enlarged and tobacco product display at point of sale is banned. A series of new measures had also been confirmed in the Tobacco Products Control Act 2017, including prohibiting e-cigarettes, increasing the legal age of tobacco purchase from 18 to 20, banning tobacco products vending machine and restricting the sales premises of tobacco products, etc.
COSH advocates the Hong Kong Government to strengthen tobacco control measures in all perspectives in order to further reduce smoking prevalence to 5% or below, and by then implement a total ban of tobacco to achieve a smoke-free Hong Kong.
Source:
WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control