Starker warnings on packets and blunt phrases printed on individual cigarettes will send unfiltered health messages to smokers.
Australia has become the second country in the world to introduce warnings on individual cigarettes, following Canada’s lead.
The mandatory changes to tobacco products from Tuesday include a phased ban on menthol in cigarettes, 10 graphic health warnings on packs and 10 health promotion inserts inside packs.
The updated imagery was important because smokers had become accustomed to seeing the current warnings, Cancer Council Victoria’s Sarah Durkin said.
The new warnings also featured harmful impacts of smoking that people may not be aware of such as diabetes, erectile dysfunction, cervical cancer, DNA damage, and the impact of second-hand smoke on children’s lung capacity.
“Graphic health warnings have long proven effective in increasing knowledge about the harms of smoking, preventing smoking uptake and encouraging people who smoke to quit,” Prof Durkin said.
Health warnings on individual Australian cigarettes will include phrases such as “CAUSES 16 CANCERS”, “DAMAGES YOUR LUNGS” and “DAMAGES DNA”.
Experts believe that cigarettes with a health warning printed on the filter better convey the risks and harms because it doesn’t disappear as the cigarette burns.
Quit director Rachael Andersen said the new warnings and health promotion inserts would “act as both a disincentive to smoke and a bridge to services such as Quitline and quit.org.au”.
“There’s no doubt quitting smoking can be hard, people tell us so all the time,” she said.
Last week’s federal budget revealed $6.9 billion had been wiped off tobacco excise projections to 2029, with about one in five smokers shifting to illicit cigarettes or vapes.
In response, $157 million will be pumped into federal health, crime and tax agencies over two years to strengthen enforcement and target crime gangs.
In Victoria, there have been more than 100 firebombings over two years as organised criminals nationwide focus on the booming and lucrative black market.
