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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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Australia Plans to Display Graphic Health Warnings on Cigarette Packs [02/12-6]
Excerpts from: GRAPHIC WARNINGS PLANNED FOR CIGARETTE PACKETS
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Aging [02/02/04]
View Graphic Health Warnings
The government is going through the process required to replace the current warnings on tobacco products with graphic images of diseases caused by smoking, the Australian Government Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Trish Worth, announced today.
Ms Worth said a regulation impact statement (RIS) for new health warnings on tobacco products had been developed by the Treasury. From today, members of the public and interested stakeholders were invited to help develop the new health warnings through making comments on the RIS. Comments could be made until 19 March 2004.
“The new warnings being considered under the RIS highlight more strongly the fact that tobacco is a lethal consumer product,” Ms Worth said. “Tobacco smoking is the single largest preventable cause of death and disability in Australia. It kills more than 19,000 people, is responsible for about 80 per cent of drug-related deaths, and costs the Australian community around $21 billion in social costs per year.
The RIS proposes 14 new graphic health warnings. These will be placed on both the front and back of cigarette packets. Two display options are proposed:
The RIS also proposes new display rotation arrangements: seven warnings will be rotated in the first year and seven in the second year. The 14 new messages are:
“The RIS also proposes a new information statement to replace the current misleading listings of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide on the side of cigarette packs,” Ms Worth said.
Ms Worth said that following consideration of comments on the RIS, the government expected to finalise regulations for the new health warnings by the end of the June 2004 sitting of Parliament. If approved by the government, the warnings could appear on cigarette packets from June 2005.
“The government is committed to minimising the harm associated with smoking, and has helped reduce Australia's smoking prevalence rates from 24.0 per cent in 1993 to 19.5 per cent in 2001. This is one of the lowest smoking prevalence rates in the world and Australia has become an international leader in tobacco control,” Ms Worth said.
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