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