Truck and Barter: Rauchen kann tödlich sein

October 27, 2004

Rauchen kann tödlich sein

By Kevin

The Swiss have tightened regulations of cigarrette labels and other tobacco products. I'm not certain whether health officials in the Swiss and EU governments seriously think these hideous labels will be effective in deterring smoking:

The revision of the tobacco ordinance comes into force on November 1. But manufacturers have 18 months to comply for cigarettes and 30 months for other tobacco products. This is to give them time to sell existing stock.

Health warnings, such as “Smoking can affect sperm and reduces fertility”, “Smoking causes fatal lung cancer” and “Smoking during pregnancy harms the health of your child”, will be carried in the three official languages – German, French and Italian.

They will appear on the front of each packet in big, black letters and take up a third of the space. Another warning will occupy 50 per cent of the back of each packet...

The government is also considering whether packets should carry colour photos of diseased lungs, as is already the case in Canada.

Even if you support government intrusions into private health concerns, you know that these labels are ridiculous, and do little if anything to lower the cost any existing externalities.

See also this Google translated version of a Der Spiegel article, which notes that the EU is spending 72 million Euros on a new anti-smoking campaign, and has some pretty nasty pictures of what smoking can do to you.

Posted at October 27, 2004 11:39 AM

Comments

In Canada it is now to the point where pictures of rotting teeth, tar-filled lungs and other various damaged body parts are put on the packages.

I saw an article recently where it was claimed that the effect on purchases by smokers was virtually nil.

I'm trying to find the article but it may be beyond the seven day limit on free newspaper article searches.

Comment by tom north at October 27, 2004 01:45 PM | Permalink