Cigarette packs with shocking pictures go on sale

[Nicke]

BANGKOK May 25 (TNA) – Thailand has became the fourth country in the world to make it compulsory for cigarette packets to carry shocking and graphic pictures and messages warning smokers of the health risks of smoking.

The new labels, with six different pictures and six severe warning messages, were officially launched on Wednesday (25th May) to mark no Smoking Day next week.

The graphics take up half the size of a cigarette packet and feature six of health risks -- smoking makes you look older, smoking causes bad breath, passive smoking can harm children, smoking can cause lung cancer and smoking can cause emphysema (chronic condition in which the walls of the air sacs in the lungs become gradually damaged, resulting in irreversible destruction of the tissues of the lower lungs ) -- to help reduce the number of smokers in the country, President of the Thai Health Promotion Institute, Dr. Hathai Chitanon said.

“I hope that the awful pictures and severe messages will succeed in deterring people from smoking, particularly the less-educated people,” Dr.Hathai said.

A recent survey in Canada found that the graphic pictures on cigarette packs had helped 44% of smokers kick the habit within twelve months of the labelling system being introduced.

Canada was the first country to introduce the graphic labels on cigarette packets, followed by Brazil and Singapore.

A survey in 1994 found nearly ten million people in Thailand were regular smokers, among them 500,000 female smokers, according to Secretary-General of the Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), Dr. Prakit Vathisathokit.

Dr. Prakit said he as particularly concerned by the the increasing numbers of female teenagers in urban areas turning to smoking as a result of advertising and the smoking habits of movie stars.

Thailand’s Health Ministry had given distributors and retailers two months notice to get rid of their old stocks before the new labelling system came into force.

The government’s new labelling system has been introduced a week ahead of the World No Tobacco Day 2005 on 31 May. Under the Tobacco Free Initiative, government and health officials intend to step up international and national campaign against smoking. (TNA)

[Nicke]

This is already on sale in Patong since a month back or so.

[LivinLOS]

I know someone who became an overnight millionaire out of this..

In holland they introduced these big warnings that had to cover X% of the pack.. They were positioned lower front and low to mid pf a pack.. So the fella I met patented a slip on cover that is exactly hardpack ciggy size..

His first designs were to mimic the old pack of cigs (simply getting rid of the warnings) but he then had dope leaf designs.. skull and cross bones etc..

Within weeks of this all developing the idea was noticed and big corps wanted to buy his idea to use for advertising space..

Went from being a dope smoking drop out with a good idea to loaded in a 3 - 6 month span..

[ashley]

The same thing was done in Canada about 5 years ago. The pictures were horrible to look at and it made for some uncomfortable situations when you laid your pack of cigarettes on the table. The best pic was of a limp cigarette with the caption 'smoking causes impotence'. Opened up some eyes. From there the tabaco companies sold carrying cases, the same size as the pack only made of aluminum and you could take out your cigaretes and put them into it. The government then added the warning to these too. In the end, you are stuck with the warning pics.
no winning for the smokers!!

Cheers,

Ashley

[Hep]

I know someone who became an overnight millionaire out of this..

In holland they introduced these big warnings that had to cover X% of the pack.. They were positioned lower front and low to mid pf a pack.. So the fella I met patented a slip on cover that is exactly hardpack ciggy size..

His first designs were to mimic the old pack of cigs (simply getting rid of the warnings) but he then had dope leaf designs.. skull and cross bones etc..

Within weeks of this all developing the idea was noticed and big corps wanted to buy his idea to use for advertising space..

Went from being a dope smoking drop out with a good idea to loaded in a 3 - 6 month span..

Here in Denmark one guy did a similar thing. We dont have the graphics but only text taking up around half the pack with messages like "Smoking Kills" and "Smoking causes cancer" etc.. Well he made some glue on stickers with alternate messages like "If you stop smoking you get fat", "Smoking makes you look older so you can get in bars easier" etc. He sold loads of them...

[LivinLOS]

Yeah it was only text in holland IIRC...

Does anyone else listen to Bill hicks the legendary comedian (I have all his recordings and loads of bootleg stuff) ??? He does a great rant on cig warnings..

"Smoking can cause premature birth and featal injury.. Hey I think I have found my brand... Gimmie a pack of low birth weights can ya there buddy!!"