Opinions - Article: (Graphic Pictorial) Warnings on cigarette packets get green light (NZ)

[~lostgurl~]

Warnings on cigarette packets get green light

Thursday, 2 November 2006
Press Release: New Zealand Government

Graphic pictorial warnings on cigarette packets get green light

Graphic images of the kinds of damage smoking can cause will cover cigarette packets from early 2008. The current text warnings on cigarette packets will be replaced by pictorial warnings, covering 30 per cent of the front of every cigarette packet and 90 per cent of the rear, the Government announced today.

Associate Minister of Health Damien O'Connor said it is acknowledged that direct smoking and second-hand smoke contributes to 5000 deaths every year. Using powerful imagery to remind people of the real and horrific effects of smoking would act to deter smokers and discourage New Zealand's young from starting the habit in the first place. "The pictorial warnings will include images such as diseased lungs, gangrenous toes and rotting gums and teeth. They're designed to shock people into realising that smoking kills and causes serious illness." Today's announcement follows months of consultation.

Cigarette packets will also display the Quitline freephone number and other information about quitting smoking to help those wanting to give up take the next step, Mr O'Connor said.

Recent research out of Canada shows that large pictorial warnings on cigarette packets are an effective means of increasing health knowledge amongst smokers. Canada has had pictorial warnings on cigarette packets since 2001.

All tobacco products manufactured for sale in New Zealand must meet the new labelling regulations by February 27, 2008 – within 12 months of the regulations coming into force, giving the tobacco industry time to make changes to its manufacturing processes, Mr O'Connor said.

Pictorial warnings on cigarette packets are just one of the many tobacco control measures this Government has taken to combat the tobacco epidemic.

Background Information
* Seven pictorial warnings will appear on cigarette packets in both English and te reo Maori in year one, with a further seven warnings in year two and will then be rotated each year thereafter.
* Health warnings will be placed on cigars, cigarillos, loose tobacco and other forms of tobacco products, similar to the Australian requirements.
* The current list of ingredients on cigarette packets (i.e levels of tar and nicotine) will be replaced with a qualitative message about the harmful chemicals contained in tobacco smoke.
* Text information on health warnings will appear in black and yellow. This follows research undertaken by BRC Marketing and Social Research on various focus groups. * Once the new labelling requirements come into force, retailers will have six months to sell existing cigarettes containing old warnings.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0611/S00043.htm

Reputation Comments on this post:

Interesting, thanks for posting

[GForce]

Seems a bit overboard, in my opinion. Of course, like any drug, people need to know the dangers of tobacco, but to some extent its there responsibility to know what they're putting into their body. Cigarettes, after all, are just another product on the market for consumers to consume. From an economics standpoint, it seems a bit ridiculous to demand suppliers effectively try to persuade their customers to stop using their product. Warnings are very understandable, and I am not advocating that we remove them all together. Just like any product that can be potentially dangerous (be it perscriptions, over the counter medication, or even something as simple as food with peanuts) consumers should know the risks when they're buying it. Cigarettes can cause lung cancer, birth defects, among many other things. These are warnings that the producer has an obligation to tell the consumer. But to show a picture of a smoker's lung is almost propoganda. They're already being told they're damaging they're lungs, and they know they're damaging they're lungs. A requirement like this is just taking this concept to the next level to use something grotesque to convince someone not to buy a product.

I believe in educating people on what they put into their body and warning them about the dangers, but its a choice to be left up to them. To me, as an economics major, this just seems like an attempt to stiff-arm consumer choice with scare tactics. Next think you know, McDonalds is going to print pictures of clogged arteries on their french fry boxes and fat people on their big mac boxes.

[Bajeda]

Thank You For Smoking comes to mind with the huge skull and crossbones label. Its a bit overboard. Its not like everyone who smokes cigarettes is a complete retard. I understand that its not healthy and society would be better off with no one smoking cigarettes but it is a free fucking society (or so we are constantly told) so the government can start fucking off in this case.


They already started doing this in Canada at least a year or so back and all it really achieved for me personally as well as people I know is make us sick and feel crappy right after buying cigarettes. Thats about it.

Oh and it probably increases sales of cigarette cases too.

[Thirdedge]

These pictures may auctually help cause the smoker to get cancer by forcing them to visualize themselves with it everytime they have a smoke. We,ve all heard of positive visualization, well this is negative visualization IMO.

I imagine stickers will quickly become available to cover up this type of thing as they have in the UK. The tobacco companies may also create packets that can be torn for example, or tins to insert the pack into covering it up.

[jon-q]

Graphic images appear on cigarette packets to shock smokers into quitting By Daily Mail Reporter

Shocking pictures of throat cancer and rotting teeth are to appear on cigarette packets from today to illustrate the health risks of smoking.
Among the other images smokers will see are rotting lungs, a corpse in a morgue and a body cut open during surgery.

The photos will appear on the back of packets accompanied by a written health warning.
Warning: Each cigarette packet will carry a graphic image about the dangers of smoking
The images replace the previous warnings introduced in January 2003, although the messages 'Smoking kills' and 'Smoking seriously harms you and others around you' will continue to appear on the front of packets.
New figures showed written warnings had motivated more than 90,000 smokers to call the NHS Smoking Helpline, the Department of Health said.
However, smoking is still the biggest killer in England where it causes the premature death of more than 87,000 people each year.

The photos are expected to be more effective than text, and research suggested that warnings should be changed periodically to maintain their effectiveness, the DoH said.

The smokers' lobby group Forest criticised the new warnings as 'unnecessarily intrusive' and 'gratuitously offensive'.
Forest director Simon Clark said: 'We support measures that educate people about the health risks of smoking, but these pictures are designed not just to educate but to shock and coerce people to give up a legal product.

More...Smokers' children 'become addicted to nicotine through passive smoking'

'They are unnecessarily intrusive, gratuitously offensive, and yet another example of smokers being singled out for special attention.'
However, Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) director Deborah Arnott said: 'The stark images in the picture warnings on tobacco products are a call to action to smokers to quit, and the evidence is that they work.
'The evidence also shows that picture warnings work better on plain packs, so we are urging the Government to also implement legislation to require the removal of pack branding to maximise the impact of the these images.'

A smokers' lobby group called the images 'intrusive' and 'offensive'
Canada was the first country to introduce picture warnings in 2001.

Research a year later found 31 per cent of ex-smokers said the images had motivated them to quit the habit while 27 per cent said they had helped them to remain non-smokers, according to the DoH.

Graphic images are now used on tobacco products sold in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, Venezuela, Thailand and Uruguay.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar....html?ITO=1490

Regards.....Q

[~lostgurl~]

Please copy and paste the article into this thread and add pics to the image gallery if you have a chance. Cheers.