BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union signaled Monday it may soon require cigarette packages in all 27 member nations to display scary photos of diseased organs and much bigger health warnings.
At an anti-smoking conference on World No Tobacco Day, EU Health Commissioner John Dalli said he believed "the time has come to strengthen our efforts to fight tobacco and its consequences on people’s health."
He did not elaborate but said he will soon launch "a public consultation" on beefing up the EU’s 2001 law that requires tobacco products — except the chewing and snuff versions — to carry two health warnings.
It also allows for photos showing the harm smoking can do to body organs.
Only five EU nations require photos: Belgium, Romania, Britain, Latvia and Malta. France will do so as of 2012.
Worldwide almost 40 nations require — or will soon require — photo displays on tobacco packaging.
Also under debate in the EU are steps to ban corporate logos and colors from tobacco products, health warnings covering up to 80 percent of the front and back of a cigarette box.
The Smoke Free Partnership, an alliance of health research networks, says it wants the European Parliament to make sure tougher EU tobacco law provides for "mandatory graphic warnings," said Florence Berteletti Kemp, the group’s director.
Last week, the EU released a survey showing 20 years after European governments began campaigning against tobacco in earnest, a third of EU nationals still light up. That finding was marginally better than that of a similar 2006 survey that found 32 percent of Europeans to be regular smokers.
