[Intl-tobacco] Graphic pictures to be placed on Thai cig packs

[Robert Weissman]

Graphic pictures to frighten Thai smokers

by
THAILAND;
Source: BBC Online, Friday, 10/27/00


Health officials in Thailand say cigarette packets will soon bear colour

pictures of diseased lungs and clogged arteries in a bid to encourage
smokers
to kick the habit.

The director of the agency charged with controlling tobacco consumption,

Varabhorn Bhumisawasdi, said pictures told a thousand words, and would
be
particularly useful for illiterate smokers.

He said suitably graphic colour photographs were being obtained from
hospitals.
But he said it would be at least a year before they appeared because
cigarette
producers first had to clear old stock.

Thai cigarette packets have carried written health warnings since 1992,
and
earlier this year, the government banned film and television from
showing
characters smoking in a bid to stub out the habit among young people.

>From the newsroom of the BBC World Service