Australia cigarette plan facing new legal threat
A second global tobacco giant has flagged legal action over Australia's plain packaging plan for cigarettes, warning of violations of its intellectual property rights, a report said Saturday.
British American Tobacco said it stood ready to take Canberra to court over the plan to put cigarettes in bland, logo-free packets with graphic health warnings from next year in a drive to lower smoking rates.
The Hong Kong-based Asian arm of tobacco giant Philip Morris launched a lawsuit this week claiming the plan breached a bilateral investment treaty between Hong Kong and Australia by forcibly removing trademarks and other intellectual property.
British American said it faced similar issues.
"British American Tobacco Australia has always said that with any attempt to introduce plain packaging we will defend our intellectual property," a spokesman told The Australian newspaper.
"We don't want to end up in court and we hope that situation can be avoided, but if the government keeps pushing ahead with its plans for plain packaging then unfortunately court is where it will end up."
The spokesman said Canberra would likely face "numerous legal challenges both domestically and internationally" over the proposal.
British American's managing director David Crow had written to the health minister highlighting concerns about the proposal raised by the EU, Mexico, Indonesia, China, Brazil and other countries, according to The Australian.
Philip Morris has said it has a "very strong legal case and will be seeking significant financial compensation for the damage to our business."
Canberra says 15,000 Australians die of smoking-related diseases every year, and that tobacco use costs the country Aus$31.5 billion ($34 billion) annually in healthcare and lost productivity.
Although Australia would be the first country in the world to mandate plain packaging, New Zealand, Canada and Britain have considered a similar approach and are closely watching developments.
(c) 2011 AFP
-
From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor,
32 comments
-
Thioridazine kills cancer stem cells in human while avoiding toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments,
3 comments
-
SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station (Update),
42 comments
-
Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea,
31 comments
-
SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update),
2 comments
-
Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras
Apr 15, 2011
- More from Physics Forums - Independent Research
More news stories
Keep food safety in mind this memorial day weekend
(HealthDay) -- Picnics, parades and cookouts are as much a part of Memorial Day weekend as tributes to the United States' war veterans.
14 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Family history of Alzheimer's affects functional connectivity
(HealthDay) -- Cognitively normal individuals with a family history of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) may display lower resting state functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) of the brain, ...
Medicine & Health / Alzheimer's disease & dementia
23 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Transvaginal mesh op restores pelvic organ prolapse at price
(HealthDay) -- Transvaginal mesh (TVM) procedures are effective for anatomical restoration of pelvic organ prolapse (POP), but patients report a worsening of sexual function following surgery, according to ...
23 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Color-changing contact lenses to help diabetics (w/ Video)
For the millions of Americans with diabetes, the inconvenient and often painful method of testing blood sugar levels is a way of life. But research and innovative product design by scientists at The University of Akron may ...
May 23, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (7) |
4
|
Missouri opts for untested drug for executions
(AP) -- The same anesthetic that caused the overdose death of pop star Michael Jackson is now the drug of choice for executions in Missouri, causing a stir among critics who question how the state can guarantee ...
Medicine & Health / Medications
May 24, 2012 |
not rated yet |
4
Nvidia trumpets Tegra 3 phone design wins for 2012
(Phys.org) -- Nvidia’s competitive war paint has a name, Tegra 3. On the heels of Nvidia announcements about lowering costs of its Tegra 3 processors and Nvidia-enabled tablets running Android Ice Cream ...
Browser wars flare in mobile space
The browser wars are heating up again, but this time the fight is for dominance of the mobile Internet.
Scientist: Evolution debate will soon be history
(AP) -- Richard Leakey predicts skepticism over evolution will soon be history. Not that the avowed atheist has any doubts himself.
Dell tablet leak: 10.1-inch display, two-battery choice
(Phys.org) -- Headline after headline talks about vendors’ tablets in the wings as likely number-one contenders for the iPad. Such claims have justifiably been taken with a grain of salt, considering ...
Social welfare cuts ultimately come with heavy price, researchers say
(Phys.org) -- Slashing government funding for Medicaid, food stamps and other programs that serve the poor – while politically popular with some lawmakers and many conservatives – may do more harm ...
Is a classical electrodynamics law incompatible with special relativity?
(Phys.org) -- The laws of classical electromagnetism that were developed in the 19th century are the same laws that scientists use today. They include Maxwell’s four equations along with the Lorentz la ...
Jul 02, 2011
Rank: 4.8 / 5 (4)
Jul 02, 2011
Rank: 3.7 / 5 (3)
Jul 02, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (5)
Jul 03, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
Get over your fear of dying, we are all gonna go.
Jul 03, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
After you.
Jul 03, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
It's a fact that a product like cigarettes - a documented carcinogen with a multitude of other severe health problems and zero benefits, would never be allowed to be sold if it were a new product seeking approval for sale today.
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 2.3 / 5 (6)
Alcohol is responsible for a considerable burden of death, disease and injury in Australia. Alcohol-related harm to health is not limited to drinkers but also affects families, bystanders and the broader community.
It was estimated that 31% of all driver and pedestrian road deaths in Australia are alcohol-related. (compared with near zero for tobacco).
So all you mad health zealots going to demand plain packaging on beer,wine and spirits? Nah, didn't think so. Hypocrites.
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 2.3 / 5 (6)
Ban TV and limit computer access. Make exercise compulsory and bye bye fast food. Ban Maccas and KFC.
Suicide (self-harm) continues to be a more frequent cause of death than lung cancer in Australia. Now wonder with all the depressing fun police telling everyone how to live a long healthy boring life.
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 2.3 / 5 (6)
.. but hey dont let facts get in the way of your zealotry!
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
How much revenue does Australia receive from tobacco and alcohol taxes?
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 2.3 / 5 (6)
This link has some detailed info and to deflect the likely claims of bias - i have checked briefly and the figures seem to be corroborated by government sources.
http://www.tobacc...economy-
Gosh, smokers seem to not only be paying their way in terms of health care but are also paying for much more serious health problems faced by the fat, lazy junk food eaters.
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 4.3 / 5 (6)
If you're going to argue substance abuse, then pretty much anything that's abused can kill you or be harmful to your health. That argument doesn't wash.
Instead of arguing against straw men, why don't you just kick the habit? Your lungs will thank you!
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 1.8 / 5 (5)
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
Guess what causes heart disease guess.
About 20% of all deaths from heart disease in the U.S. are directly related to cigarette smoking. That's because smoking is a major cause of coronary artery disease. That and along with an myriad of other diseases besides lung cancer is caused by smoking. Taken as a whole. - Cigarette smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke cause more than 440,000 premature deaths each year in the United States (1). Of these premature deaths, about 40 percent are from cancer, 35 percent are from heart disease and stroke, and 25 percent are from lung disease. Smoking is the leading cause of premature, preventable death in this country.
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 1.8 / 5 (5)
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 1.7 / 5 (6)
Why not admit that you just want a ban on smoking cause you dont like it?
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 4.2 / 5 (5)
I am well aware of 'the facts' and never jump to conclusions. You are arguing a different case than the specific case presented in this article. Broader generalizations here aren't helpful to this specific topic.
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 4.5 / 5 (8)
Of course I don't like it. What's to like?
1) It's only legal (currently) due to historic factors.
2) It would never be approved today as a legal product.
3) It has zero health or other benefits.
4) It causes hundreds of health problems, including various cancers, heart disease, (keep going).
5) It's a burden on society in terms of healthcare costs and loss of work productivity.
6) It's highly addictive.
7) It harms many others besides the person smoking (2nd and 3rd hand smoke).
8) It affects unborn babies in the womb with lasting health effects throughout later life (recent study).
So, yeah, you're damned right I don't like it. It should be illegal, like other hard drugs.
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 1.7 / 5 (6)
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 2.1 / 5 (7)
... people liked it for fun.
2) It would never be approved today as a legal product.
... neither would potatoes
3) It has zero health or other benefits.
... its a huge tax revenue
4) It causes hundreds of health problems, including various cancers, heart disease, (keep going).
... less than fast junk food (as already mentioned)
5) It's a burden on society in terms of healthcare costs and loss of work productivity.
... no, it more than pays for itself
6) It's highly addictive.
... so is TV
7) It harms many others besides the person smoking (2nd and 3rd hand smoke).
... alcohol is worse
8) It affects unborn babies in the womb with lasting health effects throughout later life (recent study)
... poverty and poor mental health is worse
Your opinions do not entitle you to interfere in others liberty and certainly do not validate the Australian Government in spending bucket loads in compensation money.
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 0.7 / 5 (49)
Everything here is also true of alcohol. Bluehigh has summoned no straw man. He is right. Alcohol IS the hardest drug.
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 0.8 / 5 (50)
Let's look at analogs. There are whole classes of opiates that work well when prescribed properly and aren't inherently dangerous when not abused. Nicotine analogs exist and I believe some are even prescribed now for cessation.
What about ethanol's analogs?
Isopropanol: Hmm not that much worse than ethanol, but hey, ethanol is pretty much controlled poising to begin with. Drinking isopropanol is the same but more dangerous.
Methanol: "If ingested, for example, as little as 10 mL of pure methanol can cause permanent blindness by destruction of the optic nerve, and 30 ml is potentially fatal, although a fatal dose is typically 100125 mL (4 fl oz) (i.e. 12 ml/kg of pure methanol)." - Wikipedia
Alcohol also causes a great many cancers as well as being involved in most homicides and nearly all suicides. Alcohol is responsible for more murders than nicotine is for second-hand cancer deaths.
Jul 04, 2011
Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
Heroin users often die of an overdose before attempting withdrawal, and ""Nicotine itself is extremely toxic. Ingesting about 40 milligrams of pure nicotine, or roughly the amount contained in two cigarettes, is fatal."
Poison is poison.
Jul 05, 2011
Rank: 0.7 / 5 (48)
Heroin users overdose because heroin is illegal and therefore the potency varies. Also carelessness. If the drug were of pharmaceutical quality, you wouldn't run into people taking way too much out of a new batch that is stronger than they are used to.
How many people die of alcohol poising even though alcohol content is mandated by law?