Cigarette packets to carry shock imagery

Mitya Underwood

• Last Updated: July 18. 2008 12:31AM UAE / July 17. 2008 8:31PM GMT

ABU DHABI // Cigarette packets on sale in the UAE will carry photographs of damaged organs and dying cancer patients from early next year.

Tobacco manufacturers will have to print a photograph on the side of every packet of cigarettes to gain entry to the GCC market, it was decided this week. Such photographs are already in use in countries such as Canada and Australia and are believed to have a stronger impact than written warnings.

The decision comes as the Government begins to concentrate on tightening tobacco laws. Residents of the UAE spend about Dh400 million (US$109m) a year on tobacco, while smoking-related products accounted for an additional Dh4 billion between 2004 and 2006.

Dr Wedad al Maidoor, the head of the Ministry of Health Tobacco Control Team, said the move should help to reduce the number of smokers and, in particular, prevent non-smokers from taking up the habit.

“The pictures will be seen every time someone buys a packet of cigarettes, or takes one out the packet,” she said. “We expect them to have a much bigger impact than the written words. People will not be able to ignore the photographs like they can the words.”

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 10 per cent of those aged between 13 and 15 are smokers in the UAE, while in the GCC 13 per cent of youth are smokers. These figures prompted the Arab Health Council, based in Saudi Arabia, to announce the move.

“In Canada and some other countries, the cigarette packets already have these pictures on them and it puts people off smoking,” said Dr Maidoor. “This is what we want to achieve. It is about stopping people from taking up smoking as well as trying to warn smokers about the dangers.

“The pictures will shock people, we hope. We want to show all different information such as the effects on the organs, but also the effects on the teeth and other things such as cancer of the mouth. We have also seen photographs of lower limbs that have been damaged by vascular problems.

“Different photographs will impact on different people, so we want to show a full range. Not all of them are strong medical pictures, they are of yellowing teeth and nails.”

These international guidelines for tobacco packaging and labelling were established under Article 11 of the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the first international treaty devoted to public health. The three main treaty areas are package health warnings, restrictions on misleading information and labelling of cigarette constituents and emissions.

In 2001, Canada became the first country to put images, including cancerous lungs, diseased hearts and mouth cancer, on cigarette packages alongside associated text messages.

The photos and text must cover half of the package on the front and back.

Dr Maidoor said that ideally each GCC country would provide their own photographs, but the UAE did not have the resources. It will use Canada’s for a limited period.

The latest effort to cut the number of smokers comes at the same time as a nationwide anti-smoking campaign, which aims to make cigarettes less accessible.

Raising the price of cigarettes is another objective of the Tobacco Control Team. In the US and Canada, a regular packet costs about Dh30, but in the UAE it costs just Dh6.

On World No Tobacco Day in May, the Minister of Health, Humaid al Qutami, announced that a national tobacco control law would be phased in by November, which would include banning tobacco product advertising and tobacco sponsorship.

munderwood@thenational.ae

• Send to friend
• Print
• 
• Bookmark & Share