A major change for cigarette packaging is set to come into effect, just over a decade on from Australia’s world-first plain packaging changes.
Under new regulations, health warnings must be printed on individual cigarettes.
Canada began the same practice last year, and local officials hope it will further remind smokers about the harm of nicotine products.
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The Department of Health and Aged Care released its draft regulations on October 30, closing submissions in response on November 8.
The new regulations aim to “improve public health by discouraging smoking and the use of regulated tobacco items”, as well as encouraging existing users to give up their habit.
The proposed labels are:
- Toxic addiction
- Poisons in every puff
- Causes 16 cancers
- Damages your lungs
- Damages DNA
- Who is this harming?
- What is this costing you?
- Shortens your life
Tobacco is the leading cause of cancer in Australia, as reported by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
It is the cause of 44 per cent of cancer cases, the AIHW said.
A 2018 study found tobacco smoking was responsible for 8.6 per cent of the total burden of disease and injury.
Tobacco smoking is consistently trending down, with the numbers of Australian who have never smoked at the highest levels since surveys began — currently reported as 65 per cent, up from 49 per cent in 1991.
The number of people aged 14 and over smoking daily has more than halved, from 24 per cent in 1991 to 8.3 per cent in 2022 to 2023.
However, the use of e-cigarettes has significantly increased in recent years.
Lifetime use of e-cigarettes increased from 11.3 per cent in 2019 to 19.8 per cent in 2022 and 2023.
Approximately one in two e-cigarette consumers currently use them daily, up 42 per cent from 2019.
Plain packaging was introduced in 2012, requiring tobacco product packaging to be uniform in colour and contain health warnings.
“More than 20 countries have followed Australia’s lead on plain packaging of cigarettes,” Health Minister Mark Butler said earlier this year.
Butler called for further action on vape use, saying: “We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity and responsibility to act now, to safeguard the health of young Australians for generations to come.”