Will the new ‘graphic’ labels affect sales of cigarettes?

I don’t smoke so I never pretend to understand the allure of puffing away on nicotine and other unpronounceable chemicals.

However, those who do smoke claim that they use the habit as a way to relax and ease tensions in their life. Recently there have been a lot of changes to how smoking is viewed in Jamaica.

The new regulations prohibit smoking in a variety of places which limits where smokers can light up a cigarette.

Although these new measures are welcome news, I am not sure that they are being enforced as I have still encountered persons smoking in public spaces. That aside though, I wondered if anyone had been encouraged to stop smoking due to the new measures.

When I asked around the people I spoke to insisted that they were going to continue to smoke wherever they were allowed as they felt it was their right to choose their own habits.

Well there has been a further measure aimed at informing consumers about the pitfalls of smoking. The companies which produce cigarettes in Jamaica have placed new labels on their cigarettes which have been ordered by The Ministry of Health.

New Labels

These new labels are quite graphic. They feature pictures of persons suffering from various stages of gangrene which has affected their nails and teeth.

The warnings on the label are also very specific as it warns about the various cancers that smoking can cause.

Even if you never smoked a day in your life and wanted to experiment, those pictures would be enough to give you nightmares for a year!

Will those labels make a difference to smokers?

In my opinion, those who smoke are quite aware of the risks they are taking with their health. So I am not confident that anyone who smokes will examine the pictures on the label and decide that they need to stop smoking before they start looking like those pictures.

In fact many just buy one or two sticks without taking the entire pack so the label will go unseen in many cases.

So what do you think?

Will anyone stop buying cigarettes just because of the graphic labels?

Let me hear from you!

Teri Ann Renee Paisley

Gleaner Online Writer

Tags: cigarettes, labels