Smoking Warning Messages

• Images of diseased wombs and rotting brain and heart, with slogans like Tobacco Smoke can Kill Babies or Smoking Harms Your Family are shown on some cigarette packs in Singapore and Thailand

  * Thailand's smoking rates fell from 30 percent in 1992 to around 18 percent today. Health officials link it to a ban on all domestic tobacco advertising 15 years ago. Higher cigarette taxes and smoke-free public places helped too

• In an effort to curb smoking, US Senators demand stronger cigarette warnings that cover at least half of the package's front and back and use graphic color photos of cancer and other health effects (July 25, 2007)

• Smokers are more likely to attempt to kick the habit if cigarette packets show graphic pictures of health threats from tobacco and those warnings are regularly updated, University of Washington scientists who studied 15,000 smokers in Canada, England, Australia and the United States report

  * Unfortunately, United States smokers see just a small text message from the US Surgeon General on the side of the packet which has been unchanged since 1984

  * Awareness of the warnings was only 30 percent for American smokers

  * Large pictorial warnings featuring the harmful effects of smoking, like those required in Canada, should be displayed on all cigarette packs and cartons in the US, an Institute of Medicine panel urged

  *Warning messages feature statistics such as 85% of lung cancers are caused by smoking and 80% of lung cancer victims die within 3 years

  * US Tobacco ads and promotional displays should be restricted to text-only, black-and-white formats (see above)

  * Tobacco companies should be barred from using misleading terms such as "mild," "light" and "ultra-light" to describe their products (see above)

• Canadian cigarette packets now feature large and sometimes gory pictures, including a drooping cigarette to convey impotence inflicted by smoking, and a mouth darkened and rotting with gum disease caused by smoke

  * 60 percent of Canadian smokers questioned said they were aware of the warnings that cover the top half of the front and back of a pack of cigarettes

  * Radio and print ads now warn about the dangers of smoking in cars with kids. The Ontario Medical Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation sponsor the ads. April 14, 2008 start date

• Starting in the latter part of 2008, UK cigarette packs must show graphic photos including a diseased lung, an open chest before heart surgery, and a large tumor on a man's neck, according to Health Secretary Alan Johnson

• Health warnings must now cover 30 percent of the front of cigarette packets and 40 percent of the back in the EU

• England introduced large text messages on the front of the packet and smaller warnings on the side in 2003

• Starting in January 2009, at least 30 percent of Chinese cigarette packs must feature skulls, blackened teeth or diseased lungs printed on them in the latest effort to tackle smoking (Beijing Morning Post)

• In India, cigarette, bidi and gutkha packs will begin to look like the dreaded skull-and-crossbones pirates flag, the Jolly Roger, and the phrase, Tobacco Kills/Smoking Kills, in bold letters, must appear on the packs as well, according to a law (February 1, 2007)

  * UPDATE Enforcing the "skull-and-crossbones pirate flag" law has been weakened. Newer, weaker measures now allow tobacco manufacturers to decide what style of warning they print on packets

  *In India, pictures of a corpse and mouth cancers will be displayed on cigarette packets in an attempt to shock people into stopping smoking. Other packs will show a toddler with tubes running up his nostrils with the caption "Your smoking kills babies" (June 2007)

• The Romanian Health Ministry launched an anti-smoking campaign to curb smoking. It features 14 images graphic photographs on cigarette cartons showing how cigarettes can harm the health of smokers as well as their children (July 1, 2008).

• Egypt requires graphic visual warnings on impotence and disease on cigarette packets. Images include a dying man in an oxygen mask, a coughing child, and a limp cigarette (impotence) (August 1, 2008)

• A "CIGARETTE KILLS" warning must be shown in bold print, on a visible position on each cigarette packet in Kenya

• In Australia, large text warnings covering more than a quarter of the packet. 90 percent of the back must display a warning as well

  * 52 percent of smokers said they noticed the warning

  * Shocking! New South Wales, Australia's new $1.5 million anti-smoking commercial attempts to "shock" smokers into quitting (Novemeber 2008)

  * Cigarettes are a "bad friend" that smokers need to end their relationship with. They cost money, force you outside and won't leave you alone. This message is shown in new State Government anti-smoking ads (Adelaide, Australia)

• Singapore: GRAPHIC ANTI-SMOKING TV MESSAGE: A woman suffering from oral cancer who has sores on her lips and decaying teeth says "Smoking causes oral cancer. Quitting is hard, but not quitting is harder." Young children were alarmed by it. So the Health Promotion Board (HPB) will only air the message after 8:00 pm, a time when youngsters are less likely to watch television

  * Singapore cigarette packages currently carry graphic pictures of people with cigarette-related diseases

• Larger more graphic warnings can raise the number of people who stopped reaching for a cigarette. In Canada and Britain, it helped more than 10 percent of smokers the past six months pause, and nearly 40 percent said the warnings had prompted them to think about giving up smoking in the previous month

• Brazilian warning messages and graphic pictures showing smoking's risks cover all of the back of cigarettes boxes. The message: The Health Ministry warns:..., followed by one of the many known risks of smoking, is shown on one of the sides. It was previuosly featured in TV commercials

• In France, warning messages covers 30 percent of the front of cigarette packs, 40 percent of the back and 15% of side panels

  *French warning messages include solutions as well: Help yourself quit smoking: call 0 825 309 310

• In Argentina, warnings must be place on 50% of the back of the packet

• New York City's Health Department will use a former disfigured smoker in anti-smoking ads. It will show how cigarette smoking caused Marie, from the Bronx, to have parts of her fingers, a leg and part of a foot amputated

• In Bahrain, the GCC Anti-Smoking Committee has ordered graphic pictures of corpses, dead babies, cancerous lungs, rotting teeth and "Smoking Kills" caption placed on every tobacco product within 2 years (August 2008)

• In Kenya, tobacco companies are now forbidden from sponsoring sports, cultural, educational or entertainment activities

• West Virginia is on a crusade to stop pregnant women from smoking with an all-out media blitz (tv, newspapers, radio, billboards, etc.) called "Power to quit is inside you." West Virginia leads the US in women smoking while pregnant, 27 percent. They want to reverse this decade high smoking trend with this 7 month ad campaign

Smoking is the second major cause of death in the world, according to the UN's World Health Organization (WHO).

Cigarertte Warning Messages Include

1. WARNING: Cigarettes are hazardous (dangerous) to your health!

2. Smoking can kill you (Canada)

3. Smokers die early (young)

4. Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health

5. Smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth and low birth weight. . . Smoking during pregnancy injures the baby

6. Save (Protect) children: don't make them breathe tobacco smoke

7. Cigarette smoking contains carbon monoxide, tar, nicotine. . .

8. Tobacco smoke contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogencyanide

9. Cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, chronic bronchitis, cataracts, emphysema, leukemia, sexual impotence (Thailand) and may complicate (or prevent) pregnancy

10. Cigarettes are addictive. . . (Don't start)

11. Your doctor or pharmacist or can help you to give up smoking (specialists in the medical profession and Health Agencies too)

12. Smoking clogs arteries and causes heart diseases and strokes, Smoking may reduce blood circulation and cause impotency

13. Smoking is very harmful to you and those close to you

14. Smoking ages the skin

15. In South Korea, warnings feature meassages such as Smoking may cause lung cancer and it is especially dangerous for teenagers and pregnant women and It is illegal to sell cigarettes to people under 19

16. Smoking can lead to a slow, painful death

Phone, email and in person smoking cessation support is available to help you quit. And don't forget about Smoke-Free, the book.

7 questions to quit smoking.

© Copyright by Arthur A. Hawkins II. All rights reserved.