United Kingdom: soon a health warning on every cigarette?

The UK could become the first country to force manufacturers to put a health warning on cigarettes themselves within days, a proposal backed by a cross-party parliamentary group, which has called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to “get tough on smoking”.[1].

In the UK, a bill is currently before the British parliament that could force the industry to put health warnings on individual cigarettes, with messages such as "Smoking kills" or "You don't need me anymore". Deborah Arnott, a spokesperson for the non-governmental organisation Action on Smoking and Health, points out that since cigarettes are directly responsible for health disasters, and not the tobacco packet itself, it is therefore relevant to systematise warnings on each stick.

From health warnings to neutral cigarettes

Like packets, cigarettes are objects that are particularly worked on by the tobacco industry to make them attractive. Through their colors, innovations in filters, their shapes and their original graphics, cigarettes are a sophisticated object, conveying certain values and loaded with symbols: elegance, luxury, freedom, femininity, etc. The appearance of the cigarette, deeply worked on, directly influences the perception of the risk incurred by the consumer, as well as the attractiveness of the product. For all these reasons, beyond the affixing of health warnings, the question arises of the establishment of a neutral cigarette, that is to say, presenting a standardized appearance, as much on its color, its length, its diameter, its filter, as on the font of the manufacturer's brand.

A long-standing proposal in the UK and Canada

If this bill were to pass, the United Kingdom would be the first country in the world to implement such a measure. Similar ideas were proposed to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the past. However, the tobacco industry successfully opposed them, arguing that cigarette ink could cause cancer. The reason given by manufacturers to block the initiative may seem surprising given the number of cancers attributable to tobacco consumption. This public health measure was initially pushed by Canada, one of the most avant-garde countries in the fight against smoking. Recently, in October 2018, the Canadian public authorities launched a consultation to identify the issues surrounding such a measure. This first consultation, which ended in January, has not yet resulted in regulations.

Opposition expected from the tobacco industry

The current bill has also met with hostility from the tobacco industry. For example, the smokers’ rights group Forest, a front group for the tobacco companies, has called the bill “laughable,” noting that the health risks are now well-known to smokers. The advocacy group is actually a front group for the tobacco industry, almost entirely funded by the four publicly traded multinationals: Philip Morris International (PMI), British American Tobacco (BAT), Imperial Brands, and Japan Tobacco International. Mobilizing front groups is a recurring industry practice to block public health measures. According to Tobacco Tactics, by 2011, when the EU Tobacco Products Directive was being revised, Forest’s funding had doubled.[2].

FT

[1] News, Plan for 'smoking kills' warnings on UK cigarettes, 06/14/2021, (accessed 06/15/2051)

[2] Tobacco Tactics, Forest, 06/10/2021, (accessed 06/15/2051)