HEAR YE, HEAR YE!!!
First the good news. The US government has unveiled a new set of cigarette warnings in the form of graphic images in color that will appear on cigarette packs sold in the United States starting in September 2012 to highlight the health risks of smoking.
A lifeless body, a scarred mouth and a blackened lung will be among the graphic images to be shown. Each image will occupy 50 percent of the front and rear panels of cigarette packs and the top 20 percent of cigarette advertisements. One-pack-a-day smokers will see the images 7,000 times a year. The two-packers 14,000 times. One of the images shows a man with his chest sewn up. Another shows a mouth filled with scattered brown teeth and a lip with an open sore, warning: “Cigarettes cause cancer!”
According to the Food and Drug Association (FDA), smoking kills 1,200 people A DAY in the United States alone where about 20 percent of the population smokes. Similar graphic warnings can be seen on cigarette packs from Brazil to Britain and beyond.
We can only wonder if the US experience will be replicated in the Philippines where the tobacco lobby in Congress, like the PMFTC (Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation) is a formidable force to reckon with by anti-smoking proponents. It is safe to predict that the expected battle in Congress between the pros and the cons on the issue of graphic images on cigarette packs will be contentious. Should that come to pass, it could be the knock ‘em down, drag ‘em out variety. Be that as it may, the World Health Organization (WHO) is certain to get into the act and trot out statistics designed to shock and awe smokers into quitting the vice. The tobacco industry in this country would not be taking such a development lying down. In fact, over in the US, the industry has filed a lawsuit challenging the labels, arguing that they put undue restriction on tobacco companies’ right to free expression by confiscating too much of the packet space. They are not about to surrender just like that to the anti-smoking sector of society.
In Davao City, an average of three people die each day from tobacco-related diseases like cancer and chronic bronchitis while another eleven die each day from all sorts of heart diseases caused by smoking.
While the good news in the Philippines is the continuing and relentless campaign against smoking, the BAD NEWS is that President Noy refuses to take the lead. For obvious reasons.
