Tobacco official rules out shock smoking warnings
Print Edition
SHOCK pictures of cancer-ravaged lungs on cigarette packets do not fit in with “Chinese cultural traditions,” an official of China’s state-owned tobacco monopoly said yesterday.
Authorities in the world’s biggest cigarette consumer want to rein in a widespread habit in a country where more than 300 million people have made cigarettes part of the social fabric, with another 740 million exposed to secondhand smoke.
But Duan Tieli, deputy director of the State Tobacco Monopoly Association, said the monopoly had no plans to add pictures of blackened teeth and lungs to cigarette packages, according to a Legal Daily report.
Such graphic health warnings do not fit in with China’s cultural traditions, he said, according to the newspaper, but he did not explain why.
China is not among the many countries mandating such warning labels.
Over the past year, China has adopted tough new rules to curb smoking in public places as well as in offices, hospitals, schools and other areas. But few cigarette packages display clear warning labels explaining the health risks that smokers expose themselves to.
The state monopoly controls the majority of the domestic market, providing an estimated 7 to 10 percent of government revenue — 816 billion yuan (US$127 billion) in 2013.
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