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Cigarette Health Warning on Packages to Grow
22 December 2012
European Union regulators proposed
stricter health warnings on cigarettes in the latest bid to curb smoking in Europe, where tobacco-related illnesses are estimated to
kill one person every minute. The European Commission drafted legislation to
require that all cigarette packages feature a combined pictorial and text alert
covering three-quarters of the front and back. Under current EU rules,
anti-smoking images on packages are optional while text warnings are mandatory.
The commission also proposed to ban the
sale of cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco with
characterizing flavors. In addition, nicotine-containing products like
electronic cigarettes would be curbed under the proposal, which needs the
support of EU governments and the European Parliament to become law.
"Tobacco kills half of its users and is
highly addictive," EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg said in a statement today
in Brussels.
"This proposal ensures that attractive packaging and flavorings are not used as
a marketing strategy."
Cancers as well as cardiovascular and
respiratory diseases are linked to tobacco use. Saying that 70 percent of
smokers start before the age of 18, the commission described the goal of the
draft legislation as to make tobacco goods less attractive to young people.
Under the new proposal, which would revise a 2001 EU law, cigarette packages
would also have to include an information message on the side that tobacco
smoke contains more than 70 cancer-causing substances. A current EU ban on oral
tobacco, along with an exemption for Sweden, would remain.
