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.
Smokers to face picture warnings - BBC News
August 29, 2007
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".
Health Secretary Alan Johnson told BBC News there was evidence from other countries that the new images would help people quit.
"We do think it will help the number of people, who want to give up to smoking - the vast majority of smokers want to give up - and this will give them an extra push," he said.
EC keen
The graphic adverts come 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.
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.
"There's a hardcore of smokers who say 'yes, yes but I'm going to put my head in the sand"
Adam Kirby, of advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi
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.
The UK is the first EU country to publish the pictures on all tobacco products.
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.
'Smokers deterred'
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.
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.
"The government are bullying smokers simply because they can get away with it"
Neil Rafferty
Smokers' lobby group Forest
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.
Smuggled tobacco
Adam Kirby of advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi told BBC Radio 4's Today that he was particularly "revolted" by the images of rotten teeth, which looked like "broken gravestones".
"I think it works with some people some of the time," he said. "But there's a hardcore of smokers who say 'yes, yes but I'm going to put my head in the sand'."
Professor Robert West of Cancer Research UK estimated between 5,000 - 10,000 people would stop smoking as a result of the adverts, saving around 2,500 lives a year.
But he said increasing the cost of smoking would make the biggest difference, particularly to the poorest sections of society.
"The government is facing a huge smuggling problem," he said. "Smuggled tobacco is half the price of a regular pack and 40% of tobacco is smuggled, mostly rolled tobacco.
"We need to bear down on that as much as we can."
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.
Additional coverage:
Shocking cigarette pack images to be revealed - Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...
Graphic cigarette pack images to be unveiled - Guardian Unlimited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Picture warnings on tobacco products: press images - Department of Health
http://www.dh.gov.uk/...
Press release
Source: BBC News
August 29, 2007
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".
Health Secretary Alan Johnson told BBC News there was evidence from other countries that the new images would help people quit.
"We do think it will help the number of people, who want to give up to smoking - the vast majority of smokers want to give up - and this will give them an extra push," he said.
EC keen
The graphic adverts come 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.
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.
"There's a hardcore of smokers who say 'yes, yes but I'm going to put my head in the sand"
Adam Kirby, of advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi
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.
The UK is the first EU country to publish the pictures on all tobacco products.
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.
'Smokers deterred'
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.
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.
"The government are bullying smokers simply because they can get away with it"
Neil Rafferty
Smokers' lobby group Forest
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.
Smuggled tobacco
Adam Kirby of advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi told BBC Radio 4's Today that he was particularly "revolted" by the images of rotten teeth, which looked like "broken gravestones".
"I think it works with some people some of the time," he said. "But there's a hardcore of smokers who say 'yes, yes but I'm going to put my head in the sand'."
Professor Robert West of Cancer Research UK estimated between 5,000 - 10,000 people would stop smoking as a result of the adverts, saving around 2,500 lives a year.
But he said increasing the cost of smoking would make the biggest difference, particularly to the poorest sections of society.
"The government is facing a huge smuggling problem," he said. "Smuggled tobacco is half the price of a regular pack and 40% of tobacco is smuggled, mostly rolled tobacco.
"We need to bear down on that as much as we can."
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.
Additional coverage:
Shocking cigarette pack images to be revealed - Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...
Graphic cigarette pack images to be unveiled - Guardian Unlimited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Picture warnings on tobacco products: press images - Department of Health
http://www.dh.gov.uk/...
Press release
Source: BBC News
While Toque Tobacco Ltd totally supports the government’s efforts to stop people smoking. Toque Tobacco condones the stupidity of anti smoking images on all tobacco products. English nasal snuff is not smoked and it is physically impossible to contract any of the diseases portrayed in these images from nasal snuff. Further more English nasal snuff has the backing of countless medical associations around the world like Cancer Research, Smokeless New Zealand, Ash and The Royal College of physicians as a much safer alternative to smoking. Our Government with the backing of the EC is killing 200,000 smokers every year in the UK by keeping the truth from them. Snuff is more than 99.9% safer than smoking and that is a medical fact. If this stupid law is to be imposed on tobacco products like snuff then the government is even more stupid than we thought. Toque Tobacco will defy this stupid law and fight for the health of our nation. One person switching from cigarettes to snuff is one person saved.
Posted by: Roderick Lawrie | August 29, 2007 at 01:56 PM