Say goodbye to the humble 10-pack of cigarettes.
The cheap packs will be withdrawn from production as part of new government regulations, with laws coming into effect on Friday.
Companies will have until May 20, 2017 to ensure changes are fully implemented, which also means withdrawing colourful designs and bringing in bland packaging to replace them. Rolling tobacco bags will also have to weigh at least 30g.
The new ‘standardised’ packaging will see all packs the same colour, with 60% of the casing being covered by text and images w demonstrating the damage that smoking does to your health. Packs will all have the same colour, opening and font.
In the UK, the proportion of adults who smoke has fallen from 27.4 per cent in 1999 to 18.8 per cent in 2014 last year, according to data from Euromonitor. Over the same period it has fallen from 24.1 per cent to 17.4 per cent in the United States, the Telegraph reports.
Ireland has taken a step further, becoming the first country in Europe to ban branded cigarette packets and replace them with plain packaging.
This is what they look like (Warning: graphic):
With more than 600 young people taking up smoking every day, the government is hoping these new regulations will prevent people from starting.
Packs will also be banned from using words like organic, lite and natural because it may suggest that one pack is better for you compared with other types of cigarettes.
MPs also voted to ban menthol cigarettes and flavoured tobacco, but that won’t come into effect until 2020.
