Graphic warnings on Australian cigarette packets

By GREG ANSLEY Australia correspondent

CANBERRA - Australia has taken another hefty swipe against smoking, with new rules forcing tobacco companies to print gruesome illustrations of the medical consequences on both sides of cigarette packets.

This will include colour pictures of diseased eyes, hearts, lungs and throats, which will be accompanied by written warnings of the dangers of such conditions as cancer, blindness, vascular disease and emphysema.

Under the new rules the graphic warnings must cover 30 per cent of the front of cigarette packets and 90 per cent of the backs, phased in over the next 18 months.

The move follows a long battle between the Government and the tobacco industry in a continuing campaign to reduce the human toll and economic impact of a habit that every year kills about 19,000 Australians and imposes costs estimated at A$21 billion.

"Australia needs effective, confronting warnings that more fully inform consumers and, in particular, young people about the very serious hazards arising from taking up smoking," said Trish Worth, parliamentary secretary for health and ageing.

"It is hoped that the graphic images may even jolt long-term smokers to reconsider continuing their habit."

The new warnings follow a series of tough measures to stub out cigarettes in Australia, including bans on smoking in all airports, aircraft, interstate trains and coaches, many workplaces, shopping malls, restaurants, cafes, buses, taxis and cinemas.

Bans on marketing, promotion and advertising have also recently been joined by bans on smoking at Sydney's most famous beaches, with similar moves in Melbourne and Queensland.

The latest bid to frighten smokers away from cigarettes follows the introduction of similar graphic warnings in Brazil and Canada, where the Government said they had contributed to a 3 per cent fall in smoking. Singapore is following suit from August 1.

But the move has come under fire from both the anti-smoking lobby - which regards the rules as too weak - and the tobacco industry, which says it will be put to great expense to achieve very little.

Australian Medical Association president Dr Bill Glasson criticised the Government's rejection of the anti-smoking lobby's call for 50 per cent of the front and back of cigarette packets to be covered by the warnings.

"The biggest impact for an anti-smoking message is on the front of the pack," he said. "You don't look at the back of a person's head when you ask them out for a date."

Glasson also said the 18-month phase-in would allow tobacco companies to stockpile packets with less graphic warnings and allow more young people to take up the habit because of weaker warnings.

But manufacturer British American Tobacco said graphic images would not increase people's knowledge of the risks of smoking and that education efforts should instead be directed at children.