MADRID (AFP) — Spain said Tuesday it plans to force tobacco companies to put gruesome images on cigarette packets to warn smokers of the health risks, a measure already introduced in some other European countries.

The images will have "strong visual impact," but it is not yet known what they exactly they will be or when the measure will come into force, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said on Spanish National Radio...

Full Article: AFP (April 21, 2009)

In November 2007, the Australian Department of Health and Ageing commissioned a research firm to undertake an evaluation of the pictorial health warnings on tobacco product packaging. The purpose of the evaluation was to provide information on the effectiveness of the graphic health warnings, their impact on smoking behaviour, attitudes, knowledge and intentions. The evaluation included a review of recent international literature, a nation-wide telephone survey, focus groups with…

Hamburg

The European Commission is planning a new study aimed at developing better graphic images to warn of the damaging effects of tobacco, in a bid to encourage more European Union countries to put the pictures on cigarette packets.

Haravgi-Nina Papadoulaki, spokeswoman for the EC’s commissioner for health and consumer protection, Philippe Brunet, said that, although the commission developed a library of pictorial health warnings in 2005, only three European Union member states have…