In the fight to get people to quit and reduce deaths due to tobacco smoking, the Australian Government wants to pass some the world's toughest restrictions by removing brands on cigarette packages. But tobacco manufacturers have launched a big fight-back and they argue the product is legal, and that the government is infringing on their intellectual property.

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Part Two of The Current

Cigarette Packaging Ban - David Currow

This week, Australia's Health Minister Nicola Roxon introduced legislation that would bring in the world's toughest labeling restrictions for cigarette packages. The colourful boxes, the brand logos ... they'd be gone, replaced with uniform moss green packaging, deliberately bland lettering and graphic pictures illustrating the dangers of smoking. The tobacco industry has vowed to fight it.

David Currow says it's necessary in order to cut smoking rates and save lives. He's the CEO of the Cancer Institute of the state of New South Wales in Australia. This morning he was in Amsterdam.

Cigarette Packaging Ban - Scott McIntyre

Not surprisingly the proposed new rules aren't popular with tobacco companies and the industry has launched an ad campaign to derail the legislation.

We aired one of the ads appearing in Australia in opposition to the new plain packaging legislation introduced this week. The industry is threatening more than just billboards and TV commercials. It is vowing to fight the legislation in court.

Scott McIntyre speaks for British American Tobacco Australia, the country's largest tobacco company. He was in Sydney.

Cigarette Packaging Ban - Pat Tarbox

Australia is not alone in pursuing a bold approach to the tobacco industry. There's a bill before Parliament in Iceland proposing that among other things such as plain packaging... cigarettes be available only by prescription.

We heard from the woman who introduced the bill, Siv Fridleifsdóttir, Iceland's former health minister and now an opposition MP.

Here in Canada, the rules don't go as far, but cigarette packages are required to carry written warnings and pictures illustrating the dangers of smoking. One of the most chilling illustrations -- and one Canadian tobacco companies fought to keep off their packages -- is a photograph of Barb Tarbox. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002 and died less than a year later. As she was dying, she asked a photographer with the Edmonton Journal to document her last days. The result is a photo of her lying on her deathbed ... her body frail, her hair gone, her mouth open and her sunken eyes fixed in a distant stare.

Pat Tarbox was Barb Tarbox's husband. And since her death, he has taken up the anti-smoking cause. He was in Calgary this morning.

Related Links

• Roxon introduces plain packaging bill - ABC News
• Big Tobacco takes on Australia over bland branding By Nick Bryant - BBC News
• New survey of smokers and non smokers supports plain packaging legislation - The Cancer Institute NSW (PDF)
• Tobacco Companies Fight Australian Cigarette Bill By Matt Siegel - New York Times
• The photograph that cigarette companies don't want smokers to see By David Staples - Edmonton Journal
• Lung cancer victim's deathbed image sends potent message By Melissa Healy - LA Times
  

Other segment from today's show:

• UK Newspaper Wars