Graphic images for cigarette packets
New government laws could mean that pictures of diseased organs and rotting teeth feature on cigarette packets. Similar pictures already appear in Canada, Thailand, Brazil and Singapore.
There will be a public consultation to decide whether to introduce them in the UK.
“We need to continue with fresh, hard-hitting ideas, providing more information that will help smokers quit,” Health Secretary John Reid said.
The announcement comes one year after a total ban on tobacco advertising. Larger warnings have also been used on cigarette packets since last September.
Research in Canada has suggested that graphic images of diseased organs make people more likely to quit.
The European Commission is developing a database of photographs suitable for use in European countries, the Department of Health said.
Dr Reid said: “We have already made a lot of progress with the new starker warnings on packs. Pictorial warnings have been shown to be successful in other countries, making more smokers consider the health risks to themselves and the people around them.”
Smoking kills over 120,000 people in the UK every year but figures out this week suggested more people were giving up. Almost 130,000 people had set a quit date using NHS Stop Smoking Services between April and September last year. 68,000 had successfully given up after four weeks – compared with 55,700 in the same period in 2002.
Smokers’ lobby group Forest described the proposal as a “sick joke” and said it would campaign “‘vigorously” against the move.
