Graphic Images to Shock Smokers

Aug 30, 06:01 PM

Current Headlines: By Tim Moynihan; Jane Kirby

These new graphic images are to be carried on cigarette packs as the effects of written warnings are diminishing, Health Secretary Alan Johnson said yesterday.

A series of 15 have been chosen following market research, public consultation and a vote on the most effective warnings on the dangers of smoking.

Regulations will force manufacturers to use the images from late next year.

Cigarette packs with written warnings only will not be allowed on sale past September 30 next year. For other tobacco packets, the deadline is September 30, 2009.

A total of 42 images featured on a website for the public to vote on.

They included people wearing oxygen masks in hospital with the words "Smoking causes fatal lung cancer" and pictures of a foetus with the words "Smoking harms your baby".

One image showed a patient receiving emergency treatment with the headline "Smoking clogs the arteries and causes heart attacks and strokes".

Mr Johnson said: "We've had the messages on cigarette packets since 2003, warning that smoking kills, for instance, but the evidence is that's very effective, but it's diminishing in its effect.

"Using graphic images to get the same message across - that smoking kills, that people who smoke will die younger, that smoking actually makes your skin age - these are important messages, and if you can introduce graphics into it as well, it has a more dramatic effect. That's certainly been the case in countries like Canada, where they've introduced this some years ago."

He denied a suggestion that smokers were being "demonised" and added: "Smoking is the single biggest cause of preventable illness and premature death. We do have an obligation to ensure that people are aware of the dangers of smoking."

About 85 per cent of smokers wanted to give up, and they said, in calls to the helpline, that the warnings had been very helpful to them in giving up, he said.

Yesterday's news comes just over a month before the minimum age for buying tobacco increases from 16 to 18.

On October 1, people in England and Wales will need to be 18 to buy tobacco, bringing it in line with alcohol. The smokers' lobby group Forest said it strongly opposes introducing graphic health warnings on tobacco packs.

But campaigners, including cancer charities, support increasing the age to 18 and introducing hardhitting images.

Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said: "I am delighted that the UK is introducing picture warnings on tobacco packs.

"This will help promote better awareness of the damage that smoking does to lives and families - an essential step towards reducing the number of people who start smoking.

"It will also free significant NHS staff and facilities to treat other conditions that are harder to prevent."

Elspeth Lee, senior tobacco control manager at Cancer Research UK, said: "Cancer Research UK welcomes the introduction of picture warnings on cigarette packets and we hope this is a step towards the plain, generic packing of all tobacco products. International evidence shows that graphic picture warnings lead to greater awareness of the risks associated with smoking and help encourage people to cut down or quit altogether."

Chris Ogden, director of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association, said: "We have been expecting this initiative from the Government since engaging with the consultation on the introduction of picture warnings on tobacco packs last year.

"The Government, however, is requiring the new warnings to be placed on all tobacco products in the UK, not just cigarettes.

"The introduction of pictorial health warnings on cigarettes is less complex than other tobacco products. But configuring the new warnings to the wide range of pack sizes and shapes for cigars, handrolling and pipe tobacco presents a challenge."

According to the Department of Health, more than 70 per cent of adults and nearly 90 per cent of youths in Canada, where the warnings came into force in 2000, believe the images are effective

More than half of smokers there said in a poll that they smoked less around other people and 91 per cent reported seeing the warnings

In Singapore, where the images were introduced in 2004, a quarter of smokers felt motivated to quit

We do have an obligation to ensure that people are aware of the dangers of smoking

Alan Johnson

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