poland's new label restrictions (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Polish cigarette cartons to carry bigger warnings

WARSAW, June 13 (Reuters) - A new law means that Polish cigarette packets
will carry big warnings covering a third of the
carton from Sunday, public television said on Saturday.

The new packets carry blunt warnings such as ``Tobacco Smoking Causes
Cancer'' and ``Smoking is the Cause of Heart
Disease.''

Up until now, the government had required health warnings to be
inconspicuously displayed in small print on the side of the
packets.

Tobacco companies have spent 30 million zlotys ($8.6 million) on the new
packaging, which health authorities expect will
reduce annual consumption by some two billion cigarettes.

Cigarette consumption, which reached 93 billion in 1980, has been dropping
since the mid-1990s and was no more than 88
billion last year.

Shopkeepers left with stocks of cigarettes in old-style packaging will face
fines of up to 25,000 zlotys if caught selling them.

($ equals 3.492 Polish Zlotys)