Health warnings on tobacco packages: a good idea?
On every cigarette pack has a warning label no matter what country you are from. They all say something different but the message is the same, smoking is hazardous to your health. The United States was the very first country to require warning labels on all of their cigarette labels. Soon after Canada, Europe, Australia, India, Hong Kong and Singapore followed. In 2000 Canada was the very first country to enforce warnings on all cigarette packages.
At the end of 2010there was new regulation from Ottawa that says that they are increasing the size of the warning so that it will cover ¾ of package. 39 other countries have decided on using the same law. The warning label should cover the entire package but 75% is the most they can do. In February 2011, the Canadian Government had created a regulation that does enforce the cigarette packages to have 12 new images to over 75% of the outside panel of the package and in addition to that there will be 8 new health messages on the inside panel with full color.
Currently Canada is the only country in the world to use both sides of the panel for their warning labels. The harshest or toughest laws that come from cigarette packaging came from Australia. New Zealand, United kingdom and Canada have all followed the policy and that policy states that all packaging should be on a bland olive green that covered up 75% of the front of the pack and the back of the health should have all of the graphic health warnings. The packaging will still have the brand name on the package but the warning will be more prominent. Though are not too many cigarette companies that will be happy about this and one such company is Phillip Morris.
Unfortunately, having a huge warning sign though it is a good idea to warn people about the effects of smoking, it is not going to stop them. As long as selling tobacco is legal then smokers are going to continue to smoke. That is the sad part of it all. People have the right to smoke and the warnings are there in place to actually help the public and the cigarette companies, in the way that if someone gets cancer from the cigarettes then the person who smoked them could not sue for damages since the warning label is right on the package.
Cigarette smoking can be harmful to your health, the more you smoke the more you breathe in the nicotine and cigarette companies rely on that. There should be a warning that states in addition to how dangerous it is for your health that it is also addicting. Maybe if the label said that there would be a lot less smokers today. With prices rising soon cigarettes may be too much money for anyone to afford and then smokers will buy less and maybe end up quitting altogether.