THE INTRODUCTION of standardised plain packaging on all packs of cigarettes from Sunday 21 May has been welcomed as a “positive move”.
Under new laws coming into force this month all packaging of cigarettes will be a plain shade of green.
A Council motion in 2012 called for the introduction of standardised packaging of tobacco and received unanimous cross-party support.
Councillor Jim Beall, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Services and Health, who brought the original motion, said: “I am delighted that standardised plain packaging for cigarettes is passing into law later this month.
“This is a positive move we have been calling for over a long period time. We’re not looking to attack smokers but to protect our children and young people from tobacco marketing and the evidence tells us that plain packaging does this.
“I believe the stylish packaging of the past was a factor in attracting new and impressionable consumers and they were effectively an advertisement for cigarette brands. The new plain green packaging, which has been described as ‘the ugliest colour in the world’, should make a real difference.”