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By Choi Sung-jin
On Thursday, a committee of experts, composed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, selected 10 graphic health warnings, which will be attached to cigarette packages later this year.
The ministry will finalize and present the pictorial warning labels to the public by June and have one of the labels printed on every pack of cigarettes to be sold from Dec. 23, ministry officials said.
The officials point out that various studies, here and abroad, have proved that the graphic warnings raise awareness about the health hazards of smoking and reduce the attraction of tobacco. In Canada, for example, the warning labels have reduced the possibility of people who don't smoke becoming smokers by 12.5 percent. In Australia, 57 percent of smokers said health warnings could motivate them to quit.
In its guidelines, the ministry also said tobacco companies will have to attach all 10 pictorial warnings to its cigarette packages in an even portion. The ministry also stipulates that the pictures should occupy at least 30 percent of either the front or the back side of the pack (50 percent when warning letters are included).
The officials noted that at least 101 countries will be using graphic warning labels by the end of this year, adding that the size of the warnings are far larger in some foreign countries. In Australia, for example, the warning labels should account for 75 percent of the front of the pack or 90 percent of the back.
The committee selected the 10 labels after examining about 800 such pictures throughout the world. They comprise five pictures of body parts hit by the most frequent smoke-caused diseases of lung cancer, larynx cancer, oral cancer, heart disease and stroke, plus five warnings describing other health risks such as second-hand smoke, death at an early age, aging skin, smoking during pregnancy and sexual dysfunction.
In a survey comparing the extent of antipathy against the warning pictures, about 1,890 respondents rated the averse feelings they got from the Korean labels at 3.3 points on a five-point scale, lower than the 3.69 points they gave to the foreign labels, the officials said.
Internet users showed mixed reactions to the warning labels.
Proponents of the pictorial warnings cited that the use of such warnings is a global trend, and that public good should precede private convenience, but most important, the warnings have proven to discourage smoking. They have even called for expanding the size of the warnings if their effects are less than satisfactory.
Some point out, though, that "the warnings here are weaker than those in foreign countries," and that the ministry's action "came too late."
Opponents of the warnings, however, called for reconsidering the use of the warning labels, noting such attachments can constitute violence against minorities and that their effects have yet to be proven.
Some say the government should raise cigarette prices even more to discourage smoking. "If smokers had to buy beautiful cigarette cases, it would be the same as raising tobacco prices," one smoker wrote on his blog.
The government aims to lower the smoking rate among adult males from the current 43 percent to 29 percent by 2020.
