Warnings Of Cigarette Packets, Graphic Essay, Research Paper

An Australian group called Action Council on Smoking and Health (ACSH) has

recently pushed for warnings on cigarette packets to be more graphic. They

suggested graphic photos of diseases organs should cover at least 50% of the

outside label. Additional health warnings with information s on how to quit and

smoking risks should also be included inside the cigarette packet. Bland and

ineffective warnings like “Smoking is a health hazard” and “Smoking reduces your

fitness” already cover our cigarette packets in hope that they may deter smokers

form their addiction. This proposal has raised some questions that should be

carefully considered. Are the current cigarette packet warnings really enough?

If so then why are 4 out of 5 drug associated deaths tobacco related? If so then

why are 1 out of 5 of our supposedly drug-aware generation of teenagers still

ignoring such warnings and continuing to have a puff with their peers? Obviously

the during anti-smoking cigarette packet designs are not conveying their message

effectively. Replacing those uninfluential warnings with hard-hitting, graphic

photos will provide a powerful visual gorge to help smokers quit for the better.

The current cautions on cigarette packets have little or no impact on the

smoker. Smokers are growing immune to warnings like “Smoking Causes heart

disease” that was composed in 1994. This outdated campaign is focused on

abstract tobacco related risks and illnesses that are interpreted by smokers in

ways like, “This won’t happen to me” or “I can worry about it later.” Meanwhile,

the new tactics is concentrated on the perspective of an individual smoker and

the pictures show exactly what is happening to their body each time they smoke.

This is related to the people’s own experience and is more likely to appeal and

influence their behaviour rather than plain facts and figures. On average

smokers handle their packets 20-30 times a day. So if graphic pictures on

cigarette packets were introduced, they would have 20-30 chances to face the

harsh reality of what damage they are doing to themselves each time they light

up.

As we have all seen on television, in the recent graphic-TV-ad campaign, the

middle-aged man lights up his cigarette in his car. We are next taken on a

journey into his mouth and then met face to face with a gruesome eyeball staring

straight at us, held open by surgical tweezers. We would rather not watch that

commercial because of its daunting truth, “Smoking causes irreversible

blindness”. Imagine handling a packet of cigarettes with that fearful eye

staring into ours. It is confronting. It is a disturbing reminder that has a

lasting effect than “Smoking Kills” plainly printed on the packet.

Along with the pictures on the outside label, additional warnings and helpful

information should also be included with the packet of cigarettes. This is vital

because even an ordinary packet of Panadol in your bathroom cabinet has

displayed on the packet and on an extra insert, listing all the side effects of

Panadol. This is `tobacco’ we are talking about here; Tobacco, the silent yet

obnoxious murderer. `Tobacco’ the dried weed that contains the poisonous

nicotine that we still accept even though it kills one in two of its users.

What this comes down to is consumer rights. Smokers have the right to know what

they are inhaling, and what they are doing to themselves, but many do not. For

this reason alone, the recommendation for more graphic pictures and warnings on

cigarette packets should be seriously made allowance for.