Noting that tobacco firms have started complying with Thailand’s Standardised Packaging Regulation two weeks ahead of the required deadline, the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance is commending Thailand being the primary country in the ASEAN Region and Asia to usher in standardised tobacco packaging.
Starting September 12, 2019 with a 90 day full phase-out of outdated cigarette stocks by December 12, 2019, all cigarettes in Thailand have to be bought in drab brown-coloured packs with cigarette brand names printed in a standardised font type, dimension, color, and site, with out model colours or logos.
The new standardised packaging complements Thailand’s pictorial health warnings, which occupy the higher 85% of the front and back panels of packs, at present the largest in ASEAN.
“We congratulate the Thai government for this important public health milestone and urge the Ministry of Public Health to strictly monitor compliance and impose penalties on tobacco companies that don’t abide by the model new legislation,” said Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo, Executive Director of SEATCA.
Standardised packaging reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products, eliminates tobacco packaging as a form of promoting, and will increase the noticeability and effectiveness of pictorial health warnings. More importantly, this additionally reduces youth initiation to tobacco use by restricting the tobacco industry’s ability to market to younger individuals, encourages quitting amongst present tobacco customers, and helps forestall ex-users from relapsing.
Thailand joins 15 other international locations that already require standardised tobacco packaging, particularly Australia, France, the United Kingdom, Norway, Ireland, Hungary, New Zealand, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Canada, Uruguay, Slovenia, Belgium, and Israel. At least 13 other international locations are in varying phases of introducing standardized packaging legal guidelines.
Endorsed would be the second ASEAN country to implement this important tobacco management measure. Its Tobacco Regulations 2019 require that each one tobacco merchandise (including cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars, beedies, ang hoon and different roll-your-own tobacco products) should fully comply with standardised packaging starting July 1,2020..