All cigarettes sold in Thailand will come in standardised, plain packaging starting on 12 Sept as part of the continuing campaign to reduce tobacco consumption, the Bangkok Post reported.

Thailand will become the first country in Asia to enforce plain packaging and is the 16th country to do so worldwide, according to the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance.
The new packaging will be drab brown, with cigarette brand names printed in a standardised font type, size, colour and location, without brand colours or logos. Pictorial health warnings will cover the upper 85 per cent of the front and back of packs, the largest in ASEAN countries, the report said.
“We congratulate the Thai government for this important public health milestone and urge the Ministry of Public Health to strictly monitor compliance and impose penalties on tobacco companies that do not abide by the new law,” Dr Ulysses Dorotheo, executive director of the Alliance, was quoted as saying.
According to the Alliance, 15 other countries already require standardised tobacco packaging: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, Turkey, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Slovenia.