FRANCE-TOBACCO/CONFERENCE Paris conference calls neutral tobacco packaging

Record ID: 146604

  • Title: FRANCE-TOBACCO/CONFERENCE Paris conference calls neutral tobacco packaging
  • Date: 20th July 2015
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (JULY 20, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** SCREEN WITH SIGN READING (French): 'GENERATION WITHOUT TOBACCO' - INTERNATIONAL ACTION FOR NEUTRAL PACKAGING PHOTOGRAPHER INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES AT NEWS CONFERENCE NEWS CONFERENCE UNDERWAY (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH HEALTH MINISTER, MARISOL TOURAINE, SAYING: "A packet of cigarettes is
  • Embargoed: 4th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACD3PVTRHRUFH6GYRF6QWM6SD1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Ministers from ten countries gathered in Paris on Monday (July 20) for a conference to appeal for the world-wide introduction of plain packaging aimed at deterring smokers.
    Ministers and representatives from Australia, South Africa, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Sweden and Uruguay attended the meeting hosted by French Health Minister Marisol Touraine.
    "A packet of cigarettes is too often looked at as a fashion accessory. Standardising cigarette packets means making tobacco packets less attractive, it means putting an end to the hellish spiral of the originality of packaging to which too many young people continue to succumb," Touraine told a news conference.
    Australia, which in December 2012 became the first country to ban branded cigarette packs, is being closely watched for signs of success as other nations explore similar measures.
    Tobacco firms in France will from May 2016 have to sell cigarettes in plain packaging with photographs of internal organs damaged by smoking, with the brand appearing only in small lettering.
    "Neutral packaging works -- Australia presented to us, during the meeting, the first very promising results. Australia is the first country to have committed to this path towards neutral packaging in 2012. The number of new smokers is decreasing in that country, the number of those quitting (smoking) is increasing. So we have made the choice, it's up to everyone in their country to take on this path," Touraine said.
    "In France, neutral packaging will hit the shelves on May 20, 2016 as we have taken on the procedure for the necessary notification to the the European Commission," she added.
    Just under one in four French adults smoke daily - about the average for the European Union, a 2012 report by the Paris-based OECD think tank found. Foreign brands now dominate the market, with Gitanes and Gauloises now only smoked by a minority.
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