Anti-smoking organizations yesterday urged the government to improve regulations governing the sales and packaging of cigarettes, as a growing number of tobacco companies are introducing new cigarette packs over the summer.
The John Tung Foundation, the Taiwan Medical Alliance for the Control of Tobacco, and the Consumers’ Foundation made the appeal at a press conference in Taipei.
John Tung Foundation president Yau Sea-wain (姚思遠) said the group has received many complaints that some tobacco companies have released larger packs of cigarettes in an effort to boost their profits, as well as to appeal to young smokers.
Photo: Chiu Yi-chun, Taipei Times
“Cigarettes used to be sold in packs of 20, but a number of tobacco companies have recently rolled out larger packs that hold 23 to 25 cigarettes and are NT$2.3 to NT$2.5 [US$ 0.07 to US$0.08] more expensive than the typical pack,” Yau said.
The new packs would not only help boost sales because they provide more space for the tobacco companies to print promotional images or slogans, but also generate higher revenues, as most purchasers would attribute the slight price increase to the government raising the welfare surcharge on cigarettes, Yao said.
“When side-push packs are open, the surface area of the extending side of the box makes the graphic warning label appear smaller and therefore less of a deterrent,” Yao said.
Former Consumers’ Foundation chairman Jason Lee (李鳳翱) said current regulations stipulate that a warning label has to cover 35 percent of cigarette packs, but the labels cover only 24 percent of side-push packs when the pack is open, which violates the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法) and is punishable by a fine ranging from NT$1 million to NT$5 million.
Taiwan ranks fourth from the bottom on the size of cigarette warning labels among the 69 countries that require them, Lee said.
He urged the government to follow the examples of Thailand, Australia, Sri Lanka and Uruguay and increase the size of the warning labels to 80 percent of the packaging.
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