Since 1 March 2006, all tobacco products manufactured or imported into Australia have been required to be sold in packaging that includes the new graphic picture-based warnings (http://www.quitnow.info.au/warnings/warnings.htm).

However, a month before the regulation came into effect a tobacco company was caught marketing cigarettes in trendy retro-style tins which, unlike packets of cigarettes with printed warnings, had health warning stickers that were easily peeled off. The manufacturers appeared to be taking advantage of an apparent loophole in regulations that allow cigarettes not sold in the traditional soft packs or flip tops to carry the mandatory health warnings on adhesive labels.

An Australian tobacco company recently marketed its product in tins, with health warning stickers that could be peeled off easily.

The warning labels are supposed to be fastened firmly and not easily removed. But in testing a tin of Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes bought in Perth, Western Australia the labels were easily removed.

Retailers reported that the tins were very popular with young smokers, and it is likely that they removed the warning labels and then transferred the cigarettes straight into the tin. The National Heart Foundation of Australia made a formal complaint about this breach of legislation to Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission.