Smokers to face picture warnings
 

BBC News Online
London, UK
29 August, 2007


Smokers to face picture warnings

Images highlighting the dangers of smoking will be printed on all tobacco products sold in the UK by the end of 2009, under regulations being set out.

Manufacturers will have to start complying from October next year.

After a public consultation 15 images, including ones of diseased lungs, have been chosen to accompany text warnings about lung cancer and heart disease.

Anti-smoking campaigners welcomed the move but smokers' lobby group Forest said they were being "victimised".

It comes just over a month before the minimum age for buying tobacco in England and Wales increases from 16 to 18, bringing it in line with alcohol.

EC keen

As well as publishing the legislation on Wednesday, the Department of Health will unveil the 15 images - chosen from an original list of 40 - that are to be used.

The government promised it would introduce picture warnings on cigarette packets in its public health white paper in 2004 and in recent years the European Commission has been urging member countries to do so as well.

Under the new rules, it is expected that cigarette packs with written warnings only will not be allowed on sale past September 30 next year.

For other tobacco packets, the deadline will be September 30 2009.

Ministers have said the current system of written warnings has become less effective.

Other countries such as Canada and Brazil have already introduced picture warnings and research shows it has been effective in raising awareness about the risks associated with smoking.

'Smokers deterred'

A study by Canada's University of Waterloo earlier this year found that 15% of Canadian smokers had been deterred from having a cigarette - more than double the rate in Australia and the US which had text warnings at the time of the research.

Amanda Sandford, from anti-smoking campaigners Ash, said she hoped the chosen images would be as graphic as possible.

"Evidence from international studies is that the stronger warnings are better," she said.

But Neil Rafferty, a spokesman for smokers' lobby group Forest, described the initiative as the "victimisation" of smokers.

"You could construct exactly the same argument for placing graphic images on bottles of alcohol, but because most people like to drink alcohol, the government doesn't want to offend the majority.

"The government are bullying smokers simply because they can get away with it."

The legislation comes weeks after England came into line with the rest of the UK by banning smoking in enclosed public places, including pubs and restaurants.

When it came in on 1 July, the ban was hailed as the "single most important public health legislation for a generation" by Health Secretary Alan Johnson.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6967160.stm

Do that in Canada... diseased lungs, etc.

hasn't done anything.

Smokers dont look at the packs and I dont believe it will make any difference to anyone . shame they wont be doing that to products containing high sugar!

wonder what the pics would be of?

Rotten teeth and big bellies!!!

It amazes me that ANY government believes that awareness about smoking can be heightened at this point. The warning is on the pack, we see advertisements about the negative aspects of smoking in newspapers, magazines, and tv; we are taught about it in school, WE GET IT. We KNOW drugs are bad, they are illegal, people STILL do them. Alcohol is BAD, but its legal and still gets promoted on TV all the time. WHERE is the line?

The constant theme is this - forget good and bad. Make people responsible for their actions. If you drink and drive, you get punished. If you get cancer from smoking, thats your dime, the government doesnt foot the bill. You get high and ruin your life, dont expect handouts. The government needs to get out of the business of moral rights and leave that to religion and society.

Nope, I dont smoke or do drugs, but I do grow weary of people placing blame when they should be accepting it on themself.

I wonder... if they did this (you smoked and got cancer, it's your dime) would that then apply to: you have heart disease, diabetes, etc, you're overweight so you can just rot?

There is a bit of difference between footing a bill and refusing service, is there not?

Certainly in the UK smokers pay a conciderable ammount of tax on every paket of cigarettes, in fact it has been said that if everyone here gave up smoking, our NHS would completely crumble.

Most things are self inflicted, apparently there are more deaths and injuries from horse riding than smoking.

I personally dont think cigarettes are anymore harmful than sugar and that was my previous point

Jo

well... at least my eating a donut doesn't cause someone sitting next to all the time to breathe in the sugar fumes and possibly get cancer (big lawsuit here due to secondhand smoke and it was won)

I dont buy the second hand smoke thing - what about car fumes, factory fumes, pesticide spraying... etc... Cigarettes dont smell very nice, but people sadly get cancer whether they have breathed in 1st hand or 2nd hand smoke or never been near a cigarette in their lives and there are also millions of smokers who dont get cancer or any "so-called" smoke related diseases!

It seems pretty unproven to me, just like most stuff our governments churn out

Somewhere in all this litigation and anti smoking thing, i believe there is some kind of hidden agenda.

well, as a person with asthma and a heart condition, i can walk around in a steel city, but if a smoker who has the smell on their clothes sits next to me all this crap gathers in my lungs and I have to yank out the inhaler.

I think pollution has been capped a lot.

both my parents smoked and died of cancer. I've seen what lungs look like of people who live with smokers.

It's just one more poison we should think about whether we want it in our bodies.

Agreed, totally. But we should be able to make that choice and be held accountable.

so's sugar!

Both my parents died of cancer too, neither smoked. They both ate a lot of sugar though - especially my mother!!!

I'm not particularly sticking up for cigarettes, I just think they're one of many poisons and not the worst. Alcohol is in my opinion the most deadly thing we do, closely followed by ...... SUGAR!! I get annoyed at the way one thing is picked out as a demon thats all really

I think we're all about to see what smokers lungs look like on the cover of a cigarette packet in the UK!!!!