Plain truth

Australia has stepped up its anti-smoking regime, with the passing in the senate of legislation to enforce plain packaging for tobacco products. A close-run thing, the progress of the Australian government has been watched with interest from the UK and elsewhere. The bill returns to the lower house for a vote considered to be a formality, before coming into force in December 2012. Tobacco companies continue to threaten legal challenges to the rules, however. In England, cigarette sales from vending machines were banned from 1 October. The BMA's recommendation that smoking be banned in cars has come in for a some ridicule in certain areas of the press, after its press release somewhat overstated the level of threat from secondhand smoke in cars.