About 10 years ago, Australia obligated tobacco manufacturers to abandon overly "attractive" designs for cigarette packs. Now the Australian Health Ministry is focused on cigarette sticks.
"We know that the tobacco industry has innovated by trying to make individual sticks or individual cigarettes more attractive, more marketable, in the plain packaging. We want to remove that advantage that the tobacco industry has sought to find for itself," Australian Health Minister Mark Butler was quoted as saying by ABC News.
"The aim is to achieve a national daily smoking prevalence of less than 10 per cent by 2025, in just three years, and five per cent or less by 2030," he added.
The new reforms will aim to change the cigarettes themselves. The shape and size of the cigarettes will be standardized, and additives will be banned. Such actions will put an end to menthol cigarettes. The Australian authorities will also try to make cigarettes less attractive by printing health warnings directly on them and by using unusual colors.