Hungary has become the 5th country to implement plain packaging within the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)
Scientific evidence shows that plain packaging has a positive impact on public health, and it is considered as a very cost-effective measure for combatting tobacco consumption. The recently adopted EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), allows for the possible introduction of stricter national measures on packaging of tobacco products, such as plain packaging.
EFA strongly supports plain packaging at EU and international level. 700,000 people die every year in the European Union due to tobacco and 600,000 deaths a year are due to second-hand smoke in the world. Besides, WHO estimates that tobacco smoke is the primary cause of COPD. Lifelong smokers have a 50% probability of developing COPD during their lifetime but the risk of developing COPD falls by about half with smoking cessation.
Therefore, plain packaging could improve not only tobacco control but also asthma, allergy and COPD prevalence together with the protection of vulnerable groups exposed to second hand smoking.
Currently, plain packaging legislation has been adopted in 8 countries, 5 of them Europeans. The first one was Australia in 2012, followed by the United Kingdom and France in 2016, Norway (July 1, 2017), Ireland (September 30, 2017), New Zealand (2018), Hungary (2018) and Slovenia (2020). Norway, Belgium, Romania and Finland are discussing it.
Learn more about the relation between smoking and COPD and the consequences of the exposure to second-hand smoke for asthma, allergy and COPD patients: http://www.efanet.org/tobacco-and-smoking