NO DETERRENT: Timaru man Ryk Ormsby with a new cigarette packet containing graphic images. The pictures will not put him off lighting up.TIMARU, New Zealand (The Timaru Herald),
March 1, 2008:
By Jess Parker/Timaru Herald
Graphic images of ruined eyes, rotten teeth and blackened lungs on new cigarette packets will not deter Timaru smokers from lighting up, a survey has found.
Smokers were approached by the Herald outside a supermarket yesterday for their views on the new packets.
Regulations requiring graphic pictorial health warnings to appear on all tobacco packaging sold in New Zealand came into force on Thursday. The new packets have already started appearing in Timaru dairies and supermarkets.
While the images were disturbing, smokers spoken to said they would not put be put off buying cigarettes.
Timaru man Ryk Ormsby had been smoking for many years and said nothing would put him off lighting up. "They definitely won't stop me from smoking. I tried to stop once for about three months and ended up getting up to over 130kgs," he said.
The warnings were disgusting but he would just ignore them, he said. "They are not going to work on me."
An elderly Timaru man, who did not want to be named, said the the whole idea was ridiculous. "It's just crap. With these images on the packets does it mean they will put the price of smokes up again?"
He had been smoking for 60 years and dreaded to think how much he had paid the Government in tax over those years, for his habit.
"People know what cigarettes can do. They don't need any more rubbish put on the packets."
A Timaru woman admitted the pictures were horrific but had no influence on her.
"It's not going to put me off. It's easy to start but not to give up. I think the graphics on the packets in Australia are much worse," she said.
In 2006, the Government unveiled 14 gory images of the potential side effects of smoking, intended to cover 30 per cent of the front and 90 per cent of the back of tobacco packaging from this year, in an effort to stop people smoking.
The messages include "Smoking causes gangrene", with an image of an infected foot, "You are not the only one smoking this cigarette", featuring a severely ill baby, and "Smoking causes mouth cancer", with a photo of a blistered mouth.
Retailers have until August to clear their shelves of old cigarette packets.
© Fairfax New Zealand Limited 2007
