Australia: Tobacco industry’s plain packaging predictions a bust, new research shows

New research suggests that several of the tobacco industry's major predictions about the introduction of plain packaging have not been borne out. The industry predicted that plain packaging would harm smaller retailers and that smokers would be more likely to purchase cheap Asian brands and to use illicit tobacco.
However, researchers found that between 2011 and 2013 the proportion of smokers purchasing from supermarkets did not increase, the use of low-cost Asian brands did not increase and the proportion of smokers using unbranded illicit tobacco did not change significantly. An article about the research is published in BMJ Open (Press Release Cancer Council Victoria, 29 August 2014).
Click here for the press release.
Click here for the published article (791 kB).

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