01/02/2013

Graphic Images Added To Cigarette Packaging

From today all cigarette packets in Ireland will carry graphic photographs with a strong health warning, depicting the negative health impacts associated with smoking.

Alongside the ban on the display and advertising of tobacco products in shops, the warnings follow other legislative measures to tackle smoking.

The Irish Heart Foundation welcomed the move, saying that smoking remains the number one preventable cause of death in Ireland and worldwide.

Smokers' group Forest Eireann has criticised the new picture health warnings.

Spokesman John Mallon said: "Smokers know the risks. The pictures are unnecessarily intrusive, gratuitously offensive, and yet another example of smokers being singled out for special attention," RTÉ reported.

(H)


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