Graphic images to be displayed on tobacco products

[~lostgurl~]

A new entry has been added to Drugs Archive

Description:

3 mins
27 February 2008
3 News (NZ)

Gangrenous toes and diseased hearts and lungs are just some of the graphic images the Ministry of Health is adopting in its latest campaign to get smokers off the tobacco.

From tomorrow, all tobacco products must feature a graphic image on the front and back of their packaging depicting the harm tobacco smoking can cause.

Peter O'Hagan smoked for 54 years. He survived lung cancer once, kept on smoking, and is now getting treatment for a second cancerous tumour in his lung.

He is all for the government's new graphic health warnings which come into force tomorrow.

The disgusting images will have to cover 30 percent of the front of the pack and 90 percent of the back. The campaign has been used in Canada for seven years and is also in use in parts of Europe, Asia and South America.

When Australia adopted the graphic images two years ago, calls to quit smoking helplines increased by 33 percent.

It is hoped they will have the same impact in New Zealand, but many smokers 3 News spoke to said they will not quit because of the images.

To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit Graphic images to be displayed on tobacco products
The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Kiwi women are sooo sexy :D

[RaverHippie]

It's interesting to hear about the positive statistics before and after implementation of such a program. I wonder what the reaction would be if the USA implemented a similar program.

[JDreaming]

The diseased lungs I can somewhat understand, but gangrenous toes? That picture is pretty horrifically unpleasant. Is it really a serious risk? Last I checked people use their hands, lungs, and mouths to smoke, not their feet. I've never known a smoker who had toe problems.

[Jatelka]

^^^ Smoking causes Peripheral Vascular Disease, and Yes, gangrenous toes are a real possibility

[cra$h]

all the smokers i know dont care about the health risks, and when I ask why do you smoke, I get the typical "I don't want to live until I'm 90" or "I really don't care about the health risks". I support education on everything, but people are going to smoke no matter what.

[saorsa.elegy]

As a smoker, I can tell you that I have given the same response in the past about not wanting to live forever. It's bs. I should say it was for me. I have really tried to quit, and I have been unsuccessful. I have been seeing a counselor for hypnotherapy, and next time we are going to work on that!
Smoking has got to be the hardest thing to quit.

[Sitbcknchill]

Well I don't really see how it would be that effective but whatever. That is why they make smoke jackets. Go buy one, they are around two dollars or one euro.

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Off topic - Kiwi women are sooo sexy , I'm a sucker for kiwi women and their accent.

Had to say it, the news clip did it

[*~SaGe~*]

Some people just dont value their health as much as they should...but for the people that aren't that inform I hope this will help a bit. I have a lot of friends that started smoking because they were around alot of people that smoked....now they want to quit and they cant...sucks for them.

[Thirdedge]

This is 'Negative Visualization' - if you look at a picture of cancer every time you have a smoke you may well develop cancer. If they really wanted to reduce harm they could have positive warnings like "If you are going to smoke you may reduce some of the harm by supplementing with Vitamin C".

[zera]

Sounds like bullshit. In the first place smokers already overestimate the damage smoking does. When asked how much they think smoking lowers their life expectancy the mean response is 9 years, when in actuality its 7 years. Second research shows that teenagers (who I would presume are the main target of this campaign) already overestimate the riskiness of most dangerous activities. The reason that teens engage in riskier behavior is because they value the benefits of that behavior higher than adults. If you want to dissuade teens you shouldn't advertise things like "Smoking will kill you!" your advertisements should be like "Smoking to fit in during high school really isn't worth it, because you're just going to leave all your friends to go off to college in 2 years anyway." This campaign is simply driving home a point that everyone already knows.

If anything the government should be engaged in promoting smoking, since the public's current information overestimates the negative effects, and thus less people are smoking than they would at perfect information equilibrium. That is to say there are people who are overly afraid of smoking, that if they knew their fears were overblown might start smoking for its benefits (image, relaxation, fitting in, etc.).

I would certainly start smoking if the life expectancy impact was say 2 years instead of 7. There are people out there who think the impact is 9+ years who might start smoking if they knew the truth that it was 7 years. And its their choice to make, but anti-smoking zealots would rather lie to them and present misinformation because they think they know how to run people's lives.