With new scare tactics being used to stop people smoking, should we apply the same methods to the food and alcohol industries?
On February 1st, the Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly, signed regulations which will compel tobacco firms to include graphic photographs on cigarette packs which highlight the many health dangers of smoking.
This new move – the latest in a series of anti-smoking legislation which included the decision a few years ago not to make cigarette packs visible in retail outlets – is very similar to how Australia has gone about dramatically reducing its smoking rate.
Last year, Australian courts approved the toughest known series of anti-smoking measures anywhere in the world which sees all logos and branding being removed from cigarette packs. In place of the tobacco company’s name, there is now a series of grotesque pictures of the cancerous tumours that are caused by smoking.
In Sydney, smoking is banned on the beaches of Manly and Bondi among others, the city of Fremantle does not allow smoking in any outside dining areas and there are immediate plans to outlaw smoking under covered waiting areas for buses as well as within 10 metres of school playgrounds.
There are now the beginnings of calls within the country for smoking – anywhere – to be banned outright. Smoking in Australia is now the vice that dare not speak its name.
Source: Brian Boyd, Irish Times, 19/02/2013
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