Tough warnings to smokers

12.00.00am GMT Wed 27th Nov 2002

Cigarette smokers in the West Midlands can expect to be given stark warnings of the health risks they face in the New Year.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn has announced that, in addition to increasing the size of health warnings, he plans to develop new graphic warning pictures on cigarette packs.

The Government intends to take advantage of a change in EU law secured by Liberal Democrat Euro-MPs.

Liz Lynne supported her fellow Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies, who took the lead last year in steering legislation through the European Parliament that gives EU governments the right to put illustrations of diseased lungs, gangrenous limbs, and impotence on cigarette packets from January 2003.

The Liberal Democrat MEP supported the idea of the picture warnings on cigarette packs after learning of their use in Canada. It gained all-party support in the European Parliament after studies showed that 44% of Canadian smokers claimed that the stark illustrations had increased their motivation to stop smoking.

Now she says that she is delighted that the Government wants to include this initiative in its new hard-hitting public information campaign which aims to put more emphasis within the NHS on prevention of health problems.

Development of the pictures cannot begin until the European Commission has drawn up guidelines to ensure that their use by different governments on cigarette packs across Europe conforms to EU single market rules. A ruling is expected early in 2003.

Secretary of State for Health, Alan Milburn, says that stronger messages about the dangers of sexual impotence and clogged arteries will be in place by this time next year. Misleading descriptions such as "mild" and "light" will also be banned from cigarette packs, while lists of the 400 additives routinely included in cigarettes will be published.

Liz Lynne said the key test would be whether the pictures helped to reduce the peer pressure on young people to take up the habit.

"Critics at the time this legislation was going through the European Parliament said that the pictures wouldn't work. But the evidence now suggests that the illustrations are having a major influence," said Liz.

"Government health policy should aim to make sure that people are as well informed about possible dangers from all drugs, and tobacco is the biggest killer of all."

Notes

1. For Alan Milburn's statement see Department of Health press release, reference 2002/0479, issued 20 November.

2. A study one year after the introduction of the pictures on cigarette packs, the survey – carried out for the Canadian Cancer Society – found that:

· 43 per cent of smokers are more concerned about the health effects of smoking because of the new warnings

· 44 per cent of smokers said the new warnings increased their motivation to quit smoking, and of those who attempted to quit 38 per cent said the warnings were a factor in motivating them in their quit attempt

· On one or more occasions, 21 per cent of smokers have been tempted to have a cigarette but decided not to because of the new warnings

· 83 per cent of smokers have had people they know mention or discuss the new warnings in conversations