Today, the Irish parliament, the Oireachtas, launched a consultation on a draft public health bill that introduces standardized tobacco packaging. If the bill passes, Ireland will become the first EU member state—the second country in the world after Australia—to ban branding from tobacco product packaging.

The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) has sent an open letter to the Oireachtas: Chair of the Committee on Health and Children supporting Ireland’s Plain Packaging plans. The public health community should congratulate Ireland for taking this bold step to fight against the tobacco epidemic. We must work to protect future generations from the harmful efforts of tobacco products. Irish efforts should serve as an encouraging example for Europe. Tobacco packaging is carefully designed by the Tobacco Industry to target consumers, for example, the use of slim cigarettes to target women and research shows that coloured packages appeal to children. Evidence shows that warning messages and pictorial warnings encourage smokers to quit and non-smokers to never start smoking.

“Europe’s youth has the highest smoking rates in the world, with higher rates among lower socio-economic groups and rising rates in the young female population” warned Peggy Maguire, President of EPHA and Director General of the European Institute of Women’s Health. “We know from the UK’s experience that the tobacco industry will put up a fierce fight to block, amend or delay the introduction of standardized packaging. So we welcome the Irish government’s commitment to protecting children from tobacco marketing. Stripping cigarette packaging of their bright colours and marketing gimmicks draws attention to the health warnings, and reveals cigarettes as the deadly products they are,” added Alison Cox of Cancer Research UK.

The new EU Tobacco Product Directive (TPD), endorsed by the European Council and the European Parliament, will mandate that picture and text health warnings to cover 65% of tobacco packages; EU member states can, however, adopt more stringent measures to regulate tobacco products, such as plain packaging. Today’s launch of the plain packaging consultation in Ireland should encourage other EU member states to step up public health measures to make smoking, the cause of hundreds of thousands of deaths a year Europe, less attractive to people.

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