UK News 21-11-2002 Cigarette Packets To Show Diseased Organs who: Health Secretary Alan Milburn what: Announces plan to ramp up fight against smoking with US-sytle shock tactics where: Royal College of Physicians, LONDON when: Yesterday snippet: "Graphic health warnings, which could include pictures of diseased hearts, lungs and brains, will be added to cigarette packets as the European Union and British government step up action against smoking," the health secretary, Alan Milburn, said yesterday. "Stronger and larger" written warnings on tobacco products, including messages about the dangers of impotence and clogged arteries, would be in place by this time next year, explains The Guardian. "Pictures of diseased organs on cigarette packets might take longer, but officials stressed Britain was pressing for rapid legislation enforcing such measures from Brussels." Mr Milburn promised to give Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation £15 million over three years to lead the campaigns, adds an approving Times, "based on the success of similar techniques in California and Australia," where adverts, including one showing a smoker who had lost her larynx to cancer but who continued to smoke through a tracheotomy opening in her throat, won accolades from anti-smoking groups. "Our approach is not just about getting people to quit smoking but to make sure that people, especially the young, never start," said Mr Milburn. "The time has now come to put renewed emphasis on prevention as well as treatment so that we can develop in our country genuine health services and not just sickness services." Tobacco manufacturer BAT hit back at the health secretary, saying it would challenge the legality of a proposed ban on packaging terms such as "light" and "mild", "saying they signal different tastes and a ban would deny consumer choice. Government insistence on bigger written warnings and graphic pictures would contravene trade mark legislation and the company`s intellectual property rights, it claims." [... more]

What The Papers Say is delivered to thousands of readers every morning by web, WAP and email. Sign up today!