Shock tactics in smoking battle

Tobacco firms strenuously oppose the proposals

Euro MPs are set to back new shock tactics on smoking this week - including plans to put pictures of rotting teeth on cigarette packets.

MEPs are also expected on Wednesday to demand that health warnings be expanded to cover 40% of the front of every packet and 60% of the back.

The debate will include calls for the banning of cigarette descriptions like "low tar", "mild" and "light".

Print them on packs in the UK in full colour

Catherine Stihler
Labour MEP

A vote for such measures would need EU ministerial approval but the cigarette issue is one on which MEPs have joint legislative powers and they will press for endorsement by EU member states.

Labour MEP and health spokesman Catherine Stihler said: "If vivid pictures of rotting teeth and blackened lungs bring home the true cost of smoking, print them on packs in the UK in full colour."

The latest proposals are strongly opposed by the tobacco lobby, which said the new health measures would jeopardise a multi-billion pound industry.

It says 8,000 jobs will be threatened by the measures which would encourage a shift in manufacturing to countries outside the EU.

The debate will also hear calls for the health warnings to be printed only in black type on white backgrounds on packets to maximise the visual impact, instead of the current rules which allow for contrasting colours.

The health warnings would aim to shock smokers

Some MEPs want a new maximum tar content of 10 milligrammes per cigarette, with EU limits of one milligramme for nicotine strength and 10 milligrammes for carbon monoxide content.

If passed, the resolutions would apply equally to cigarettes exported from the EU and those for European consumption.

The Brussels Commission has proposed a more modest increase in the size of health warnings on cigarette packets - from the current 4% to 25%.

Ms Stihler condemned lobbying by tobacco firms against any such moves, and said: "If the size of the health warning directly reflected the risk to health, the label would cover the whole cigarette pack.

"Half of all long-term smokers will eventually be killed by tobacco and of these, half will die during middle age, losing 20 to 25 years of life."