Media release
8 February 2007

International Thumbs Up For Graphic Tobacco Warnings

The New Zealand Government is doing the right thing in introducing graphic health warnings for smokers according to the latest international research just released.

The Government announced in November last year that pictorial warnings would be introduced on cigarette packets from early 2008.

Cancer Society tobacco control advisor Belinda Hughes says they can’t come too soon. Research over the past four years in Canada, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom confirms that large graphic warnings on cigarette packets are more likely to be noticed and rated as effective by smokers.

The study, published this week in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, reveals smokers in countries that require large graphic warnings on cigarette packs are more likely to recognise risks and are more motivated to quit smoking.

Ms Hughes says the study convincingly proves the bigger and more graphic the warnings, the more effective they are.

“In the United States, for example, the small health warnings which were last updated in 1984 were found to be least effective. Meanwhile Canada, where the warnings are most prominent among the four countries, reports the highest levels of awareness and impact on smokers.”

Canada requires the rotation of 16 warnings that cover 50 percent of the front and back of the cigarette pack and include colour pictures.

In New Zealand the pictorial warnings to be introduced according to the Ministry of Health will replace text warnings and cover 30 percent of the front of every cigarette packet and 90 percent of the rear. The pictorial warnings will include images such as diseased lungs, gangrenous toes and rotting gums and teeth.

“There’s no doubt. The bigger, the more graphic and the most in-your-face warnings are the ones that work best,” Ms Hughes says. “It’s great New Zealand is taking note of such important international research and implementing warnings to help convince Kiwis that tobacco kills.”

Ends

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