Health Minister Tanya Plibersek told Imperial Tobacco and British American Tobacco (BAT) to remove watermarking from their cigarette papers to conform with plain-packaging rules that take effect 1 Dec, the Herald Sun reported.

Separately, the Financial Times of London reports a Sydney-based company that makes boxes and plastic skins for cigarette packs is doing a booming business with products that hide graphic warnings that now cover three quarters of a pack.
BPM Innovations Managing Director Dean Osmond said 24,000 boxes have been sold since the product was launched in September and that new shapes and designs are being developed, the Financial Times reported.
According to the Sun Herald, ringed watermarking on cigarette paper makes the product look more sophisticated, and plain-packaging also requires plain cigarette paper. Minister Plibersek also reportedly warned BAT against including travel acronyms such as LDN and NYC on cigarette batch coding. The coding may steer smokers away from the new drab brown packs to the “glamour” of traveling, the newspaper reported on its website.
Australia’s plain packaging mandates brand names be kept to a standard size on a drab brown pack mostly covered with warnings about the dangers of smoking. Australia is the first country to introduce plain-packaging. (pi)