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Cigarette makers fuming over warnings

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Less than a week after the government announced 40 anti-smoking images to go on cigarette packs, another controversy has begun: on which part of the packaging should the images be printed.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare wants the photos to be printed on the upper part of packages accounting for 30 percent of the area _ 50 percent when written warnings are included. The government is pushing for the law to stipulate this.

But a coalition of cigarette manufacturers and smokers protested this measure on Sunday, saying it infringed manufacturers' and retailers' rights to promote products, and smokers' rights not to be discriminated against over personal choice.

Forty selected pictures depict lung, laryngeal and oral cancer, heart disease, strokes, sexual function disorder, premature skin aging, the effects of secondhand smoke, the effects on unborn babies of pregnant smokers and premature death. The images would be replaced with new ones every 18 months.

The ministry says the images should occupy the upper part of packaging so customers can clearly see the warnings on shelves at stores.

A group of cigarette manufacturers comprising KT & G, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and Philip Morris International are among the strongest opponents of the measure.

"The measure infringes upon our right to promote our products by using attractive designs," an official from tobacco company said.

The Korea Tobacco Retailer Association (KTRA) also said the measure amounted to obstruction of business.

"Retailers have a right to make products more appealing to customers," the KTRA said in a statement.

"Forcing us to display such disturbing pictures severely infringes our right to pursue profit."

Smokers are also opposed to the measures.

The Korea Smokers' Association (KSA) also said the measure infringed on the right of smokers to pursue happiness provided under the Constitution.

"The Constitution guarantees individual right to choose in pursuit of happiness, a fundamental right in a democratic society, which definitely includes the right to choose smoking," the group said in a statement.

"We are diligent taxpaying citizens who are entitled to demand our rights be respected as much as those of non-smokers."

Lee Yeon-ik, leader of I Love Smoking, the nation's largest smokers' group with 100,000 members, said in a statement, "It's unfair. If the ministry directly links lung, laryngeal and oral cancers to smoking, then why do they not campaign against fast food chains for causing heart failure, or alcohol manufacturers for causing liver cancer, or grilled meat restaurants for causing stomach cancer?"

The ministry remains undeterred.

"Anti-smoking is a global trend," it said in a statement. "According to the World Health Organization, out of the 180 countries that adopt the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), 51 countries including the U.K., Canada, Germany, and France make it compulsory to attach the pictorial warnings on the upper part of packaging."

Lee Kyung-min lkm@koreatimes.co.kr


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