New Graphic Warnings on Tobacco From Tomorrow

Source from:  nz.news.yahoo.com 02/28/2008

Graphic images on tobacco products will become law from tomorrow. Associate Health Minister Damien O'Connor said regulations requiring prominent graphic health warnings on tobacco packaging would come into force tomorrow. Retailers will have until August 28 to sell stock with the old text-only warnings. The new warnings include images of gangrenous toes, diseased lungs, smoking damaged hearts and rotting teeth and gums. Mr O'Connor said he would make no apologies for the ugly, graphic photos. "They're designed to shock people into realising that smoking kills and causes a wide range of serious illnesses," Mr O'Connor said. "The images show what people are likely to suffer should they smoke over a prolonged period of time." The regulations see 30 percent of the front and 90 percent of the back of cigarette packs covered in the graphic images. For the first time, cigarette and other tobacco packets will also prominently display the Quitline logo, freephone number and other information about quitting. Seven pictorial warnings will appear on cigarette packets in both English and Maori in the first year, with a further seven warnings in year two. The 14 new health warnings are: *Smoking causes blindness; *Smoking causes gangrene; *Smoking causes mouth cancer; *You are not the only one smoking this cigarette; *Over 80 percent of lung cancers are caused by smoking; *Tobacco smoke is poisonous; *Smoking causes heart attacks; *Smoking can make you impotent; *Smoking is highly addictive; *Smoking causes foul and offensive breath; *Your smoking can harm your kids; *Smoking causes serious lung diseases; *Smoking more than doubles your risk of stroke; and *Smoking blocks your arteries. Enditem