Tough tobacco warnings approved

Images would warn smokers of a variety of health risks

The European Parliament has approved controversial legislation to force the tobacco industry to print graphic health warnings on Europe's cigarette packs.

The warnings would cover at least 30% of the front of each pack and 40% of the back.

In addition, national governments would be given the power to order the inclusion of shocking colour photographs showing the possible consequences of smoking, like rotting teeth and diseased lungs.

The proposals will now be put before European health ministers, who will consider them at talks in Brussels on Thursday.

Ministers have already rejected the use of graphic pictures of the effects of smoking as going a step too far.

However, the tobacco industry has campaigned intensively against the plans.

Most smokers neither know the full risks nor bear the full costs of their choice

Catherine Stihler, Labour Euro Health Spokeswoman

It has already overturned a proposal to ban advertising and promotion of tobacco products across the European Union by successfully arguing in the European Court that such a move was illegal.

Euro MP Catherine Stihler, Labour's Health Spokeswoman, 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.

Blackened lungs

"We must go the extra mile to show people what they do to themselves when they smoke.

"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."

Ms Stihler said existing health warnings were obscured by clever colour combinations, striking packaging and tucked behind careful displays.

A third of the packets would be covered

She said: "Most smokers neither know the full risks nor bear the full costs of their choice."

The new legislation would also outlaw the use of phrases such as "light", "mild" and "low tar".

Ms Stihler said: "Europe's consumers have been sold the idea that 'light', 'mild' and 'low tar' cigarettes are healthier, but they have been taken for a ride.

"Low tar cigarettes inflict the same damage as conventional cigarettes - smokers just draw harder to get the same kick."

Current rules

Current EU legislation requires cigarette health warnings to cover a minimum of four per cent of the pack.

Member states have the option to go further and the UK opted for six per cent.

As well as hugely increasing the size of these warnings, the new proposals would compel tobacco companies to print them in black on a white background - as opposed to the current system which requires only "contrasting colours."

Another proposal is to reduce the tar content in cigarettes from 12mg to a maximum of 10mg per cigarette and introduce an EU ceiling for nicotine of 1mg and of carbon monoxide of 10mg.

MEPs also want the new standards to apply from 2006 to cigarettes exported from the EU as well as those for European consumption.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, of the British Medical Association, welcomed the European Parliament move.

She said: "Making the health warnings more visible and more informative will encourage existing smokers to give up and discourage some young people from taking up this deadly habit in the first place."

However, Juliette Torres, of the UK smokers' rights organisation FOREST, accused the European Parliament of "gesture politics".

She said: "If smokers want to give up, and graphic images encourage them to do so, then fine.

"However, I don't think this kind of thing will have much impact as most smokers are well aware of the health risks."