UK "Moving Forward" With Standardized Cigarette Packaging

The United Kingdom has just announced that it will be "moving forward" with plans to ban branding on cigarette packs, demanding standardized packaging and text among tobacco products sold in England and Wales

The implementation of these changes will make the U.K. the first region in Europe to take steps in accordance with a series of European Union regulations approved by the European Commission last February.

According to a BBC News report, the branding ban will strip all cigarette packaging of their identifiable brands and logos, becoming only identifiable via their name and variety printed in thick white-on-black lettering on the front of a pack. According to previous reports about the E.U. and U.K. change in advertising regulation, a graphic picture warning will cover 65 percent of the front and back of every pack of cigarettes. The size of cigarettes packs also would be regulated, requiring each packet to contain at least 20 cigarettes so that there is adequate room for the picture warnings.

The European Union regulations also included a proposal to ban flavored cigarettes and strictly limit the maximum nicotine-concentration of liquid nicotine cartridges used by electronic cigarettes. These regulations have yet to be taken up in the U.K.

Public Health Minister Jane Ellison of the United Kingdom told members of Parliament on Wednesday that she "want[s] our nation's children to grow up happy and healthy and free from the heavy burden of diseases that tobacco brings."

She also said that there would be no more political posturing to delay the enactment of the regulations, and promised that massive changes would be seen in U.K. tobacco policy before the next election in May 2015.

Still, according to the BBC, critics of the change argue that there is little evidence that the implementation of standardized packaging in Australia back in 2011 has impacted smoking rates in the country.

London, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have already made plans to introduce standardized packaging, meaning that the United Kingdom will be the first European Country to take this step against tobacco advertising.