Photos Possibly Deter Smoking
Photo used on cigarette packet.
Like so many other countries around the world (e.g. Canada, Brazil, Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia), the United Kingdom has introduced photo warnings, which will be manufactured on cigarette packets on October 1st, in hopes of finally stopping this epidemic.
By October of 2009, warnings will have extended to all cigarette packets. By October of 2010, any form of other tobacco products will have these health warnings along with the photos incorporated onto the back of each packet. It turns out that words can have an impact; new figures have shown that the written warnings motivated more than 90,000 smokers to call the NHS Smoking Helpline.
Unfortunately, this isn’t enough considering that smoking is still a major killer in England. It has caused the death of 87,000 people per year due to a premature death that smoking can cause. Having this in mind, the photos are believed to be more effective than the text itself. Changing the warnings as well should maintain their effectiveness.
A supporter for this new change, Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson, stated, “I welcome the introduction of picture warnings on tobacco product packaging, which show smokers the grim reality of the effects smoking can have on their health. This will help to maintain the momentum of the increasing number of people who have given up smoking following England going smoke free in 2007."
Sadly, not all were as open to this new idea as Chief Donaldson. A Smokers’ Lobby Group, Forest, had criticized these warnings by saying that they were “intrusive” and “offensive”. The Forest director Simon Clark said, "We support measures that educate people about the health risks of smoking, but these pictures are designed not just to educate but to shock and coerce people to give up a legal product."
As anything else in life, we have choices. In printing these pictures on millions of tobacco products, think of how many lives could be prolonged. Think of how many tens of thousands of people could have their life for just a few more years. Pictures can really say a thousand words.
