WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Explains its Effects

In the quest of material benefits, are we not lagging in our health? Yet, events are happening around the world to keep a check on the decline of human health. Recently, Thailand and Saudi Arabia have joined many countries to join the plain packaging of tobacco products. All have agreed on the fact that plain packaging standardizes the appearances of tobacco products. WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control talks about the plain packaging of tobacco products.

According to it, apart from the brand name and the product name, no other promotional information should be on the cover of the product. So the cover will not contain any colour, logo or any other promotional information. The start of this new strategy was from Australia. It stood as the first country to implement plain packaging. It encountered heavy opposition from the tobacco industry. The industry justified its opposition, that the decision had infringed the Trademarks and Intellectual Property Rights.

Nevertheless, WTO was in favour of Australia's decision stating that such law will lead to an improvement in public health. In the year, 2016 India increased the size of the pictorial size of warning up to 85 %. The impact was awesome. The number of people with the habit of smoking dropped by 8 million people. Large pictorial warning and plain packaging deter new users and induce existing smokers to quit.