Costing a Packet: Smoking in Australia

① Today cigarette taxes rise for the sixth time in seven years, by 12.5%.

② It is the first in a round of four new increases that will push prices above A$40 ($32) per packet.

③ Prohibitive policies have sharply reduced Australia's smoking rate: at 13%, it is among the lowest in the rich world.

④ Cigarettes are banned indoors and in many outdoor public spaces, and shops must stash them beneath their counters.

⑤ Tobacco giants were most incensed by a pioneering plain-packaging law passed in 2011 that swapped flashy branding  for a uniform font and images of the habit's foul effects—a breach, the companies tried to argue, of intellectual-property rights.

⑥ They sued Australia, in venues from local courts to a UN tribunal.

⑦ But judges rejected every case.

⑧ Plain packets are now sold in Britain and France, and are coming soon to Ireland, Hungary and Slovenia.

⑨ Expect many more countries to follow the pack.

生词好句

prohibitive /prə(ʊ)ˈhɪbɪtɪv/: adj. 禁止的；(价格过高) 令人望而却步的 (e.g. prohibitive law / policy)

indoors /ɪnˈdɔːz/: adv. 室内地；在室内

indoor: adj. 室内的

stash /staʃ/: vt. 藏匿

incense /ˈɪnsɛns/: vt. 激怒

swap /swɒp/: vt. 交换

flashy /ˈflaʃi/: adj. 艳俗的

font /fɒnt/: n. 字体

foul /faʊl/: adj. 糟糕的；污秽的；恶心的

breach /briːtʃ/: n. 侵犯；侵害；违反

tribunal /trʌɪˈbjuːn(ə)l/ /trɪˈbjuːn(ə)l/: n. 仲裁法庭

"The true face of smoking is disease,
death and horror—not the glamour
and sophistication the pushers
in the tobacco industry
try to portray."

David Byrne, a Scottish-born American Musician