Tobacco industry using tactics to suppress implementation of plain packaging

The World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) has recommended plain packaging as an evidence-based, best-practice policy for reducing tobacco consumption. Despite this, the tobacco industry continues to employ tactics to undermine its implementation. In an article published in the Daily Maverick, Nicole Vellios and Sam Filby of the University of Cape Town’s Research Unit on the Economics of Excisable Products assess the attempts by industry to use results of a flawed public opinion survey co-authored by Japan Tobacco International (JTI) and Victory Research.  South Africa’s new Draft Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill seeks amongst other things to pass regulations to adopt plain packaging of tobacco products. ATIM supports the notion that the publishing of the results of this survey is an attempt by the industry to interfere with the policy making process in South Africa.

Vellios and Filby presents arguments against the report in the article which can be accessed here.