# Cigarette Packets to show graphic images of consequences of smoking



## Leper (1 Feb 2013)

Here we go again - cigarette packets manufactured from today are to show graphic images of illnesses and health damage caused by smoking.  Are these going to make any difference? I dont think so.

For a start, most cigarettes purchased in Ireland are brought in by friends from abroad or obtained on the black market because of the high cost here.  Therefore, very little impact will occur here.

If all the stuff talked about cigarettes in recent year was effective, why have we so many smokers?  Who is kidding whom?

Tax paid on cigarettes from abroad enhances the economy of the likes of Spain etc. If we reduce the price of cigarettes here, perhaps our own economy will reap some benefit.

Please dont dictate to me saying that cigarettes cause health damage - I already know, so do smokers, but they are still smoking.  Many car drivers drive at excess speeds, even some of our TD's still drink and drive.  Other politicians want drink driving laws flouted in rural areas.  Why not let smokers (where they wish) to continue smoking? If our Revenue Commissioners get a few bob from them, so much the better.

Wake up Ireland and smell the smoke!


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## Betsy Og (1 Feb 2013)

Problem is the taxpayer ends up paying for people's "luxury" of smoking. 

How about if you smoke then no public healthcare?? If you drink excessively no public healthcare??

If we can agree that, then I'm all for the right of personal choice...........

Polluter pays


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## terrontress (1 Feb 2013)

But the smokers have paid for healthcare through direct and indirect taxation.

Once we go down the road of excluding certain groups then we won't know where to draw the line.

Leave someone at the side of the road after a car accident because he was speeding?
Refuse to treat the amateur DIYer after an accident at home?
Ascertain what led to someone being beaten up and refuse to treat them if they were agitating someone.

We need to have equal healthcare at the point of use.

Smokers are already massively stigmatised and inconvenienced and, for the most part, it is no longer a choice. They are already at a disadvantage by being addicted and then people want to make it worse!


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## Latrade (1 Feb 2013)

Problem solved:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Addres...U04S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359722648&sr=8-1

Stick it to the Nanny State!


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## dereko1969 (1 Feb 2013)

Leper said:


> For a start, *most cigarettes purchased in Ireland are brought in by friends from abroad or obtained on the black market* because of the high cost here. Therefore, very little impact will occur here.


 
You're stretching things there with that statement in bold.

What would you say the numbers smoking today compared with 20 years ago are?

What are the impacts of smoking on the health sector, people off sick from cigarette caused illnesses are not contributing to the economy, whilst sick, and cause avoidable strains on the health care system.


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## The_Banker (1 Feb 2013)

Leper said:


> Here we go again - cigarette packets manufactured from today are to show graphic images of illnesses and health damage caused by smoking. Are these going to make any difference? I dont think so.
> 
> For a start, most cigarettes purchased in Ireland are brought in by friends from abroad or obtained on the black market because of the high cost here. Therefore, very little impact will occur here.
> 
> ...


 
Ok, there may be an argument for saying that smokers already pay for their health care by way of the high taxes imposed on them. But there is more to the cost than just financial.

When a family member gets sick from smoking in later years (usually a parent) the strain on the family is enormous. Watching a parents quality of life diminish from their 50s onwards is hard. If they contract COPD (which most smokers do in later years) means they will need help from family members to do routine tasks. 
When circulation goes due to hardened veins and arteries and legs need to be amputated it is a family member who has to take up the care because there will be little offered from the HSE.
Watching a parent slowly expire with lung cancer is hard for any son/daughter to do. And it isn’t a pretty death no matter how caring and good the hospice staff are at their jobs.

So you may be happy to have a health impact on yourself with smoking but remember that health impact has knock on effects for your immediate family.


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## Bill Struth (1 Feb 2013)

+1



My brother in law is unable to work full time, because he is a carer for his father who has COPD. He recently had a stairlift installed because he is unable to walk up or down the stairs. He's still a young man aged 63, but looks 83. 

It's heartbreaking to watch.

It's also infuriating listening to self righteous smokers, unconcerned about the knock on effects of their stinking, deadly habit. The second hand smoke, the smell of them when you're unfortunate enough to have to share a lift with them. I could go on, but I feel myself getting angrier as I type.


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## gianni (1 Feb 2013)

Leper said:


> *For a start, most cigarettes purchased in Ireland are brought in by friends from abroad or obtained on the black market because of the high cost here.*



The only research I could find shows the figure to be approx 30%...


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## Leper (2 Feb 2013)

I dont care if the figure is 30%, 50% or 90% of cigarettes used are not bought in Ireland. The bottom line is that millions are taken out of our economy because of the price of cigarettes in Ireland. Twenty fags here cost €9.30 and half that price in Spain and less again in the Canary Islands. A smoker would be mad not to have a supplier who goes abroad regularly who would bring back the cigarettes.

My whole point is that cigarette smokers are not going to kick the habit (although I concede that some do) and that graphic dreadful images of cancer etc appearing on cigarette boxes is only paying lip service to the anti smoking lobby. 

Look at the ban on smoking in pubs. What happened? - The publicans enhanced their outside areas for the convenience of smokers, installed heaters and canopies and hey presto a better environment for those enjoying a ciggy. And you've guessed it, these areas have become good conversation starters etc now are inhabited by smokers and non smokers alike. So much for the smoking ban.

Does anybody know a doctor who does not smoke? While we are at it what percentage of nurses smoke? I am not saying that it is right to smoke but if there is a revenue from smoking that would be of benefit to the hard pressed Irish tax payer, let's have it. Otherwise, we are augmenting the revenue coffers of other countries.

I have never come across a people like the Irish who adore more sacred cows than the rest of the world combined.


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## Complainer (3 Feb 2013)

Leper said:


> I dont care if the figure is 30%, 50% or 90% of cigarettes used are not bought in Ireland. The bottom line is that millions are taken out of our economy because of the price of cigarettes in Ireland.



No - millions are taken out of our economy by smokers who send millions of euro up in flames, literally, each day. Stop smoking, live longer, and spend your money on something productive. My MIL stopped her light smoking a couple of weeks ago, and is amazed at the difference - no persistent coughing up of flame, no persistent pain in the back and kidneys, no waking up at night coughing.


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## demoivre (4 Feb 2013)

Complainer said:


> No - millions are taken out of our economy by smokers who send millions of euro up in flames, literally, each day. Stop smoking, live longer, and spend your money on something productive. My MIL stopped her light smoking a couple of weeks ago, and is amazed at the difference - no persistent coughing up of flame



Bit of an oul dragon is she?


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## blueband (4 Feb 2013)

have to say as a non smoker myself i fully respect the right of smokers to smoke if the wish, if the choose to spend their money on smokeing thats up to them. doubt if the warning on the packets will make much difference. why dosent alcohol dosent come with a health warning i wonder?


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## liaconn (4 Feb 2013)

Leper said:


> I
> Look at the ban on smoking in pubs. What happened? - The publicans enhanced their outside areas for the convenience of smokers, installed heaters and canopies and hey presto a better environment for those enjoying a ciggy. And you've guessed it, these areas have become good conversation starters etc now are inhabited by smokers and non smokers alike. So much for the smoking ban..


 
You, like many others, seem to think the ban on smoking in workplaces (which includes pubs and restaurants) was to force smokers to give up their habit. It wasn't. It was introduced to protect non-smokers from being forced to inhale second hand smoke due to the inconsiderate behaviour of so many smokers who thought it quite acceptable to puff clouds of smoke into other people's faces, breath smoke over their food, cause their clothes and hair to stink etc etc., not to mention the health risks of passive smoking. Most non smokers I know wouldn't dream of spending a night out sitting in the smoking area, despite the myth that some smokers like to spread around that these areas are much more craic; smokers are more fun and so on. I suppose if they say it often enough, they'll believe it.


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## michaelm (4 Feb 2013)

Leper said:


> Are these going to make any difference? I dont think so.


One would imaging it will make some difference, if slight.  Perhaps dissuade some from taking it up.  A ban on branding might be more useful.  In fairness, if cigarettes were a new product they would never be approved for sale.  They should look at banning the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 1995.


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## MrMan (4 Feb 2013)

..And we could ban the sale of alcohol to under 18s!


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## michaelm (4 Feb 2013)

MrMan said:


> And we could ban the sale of alcohol to under 18s!


Indeed.  Despite the obvious difficulties something like that might work, especially if it was copied by other countries (as per the workplace smoking ban) . .by 2030 one would have to be over 35 to buy cigarettes . . over time smoking and smokers would die off . . they could always add a known aggressive carcinogen, just to eliminate any doubt that smoking will kill you .


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## Leper (4 Feb 2013)

liaconn said:


> You, like many others, seem to think the ban on smoking in workplaces (which includes pubs and restaurants) was to force smokers to give up their habit. . .


 
Oh no I dont! - I never smoked ever. But, every smoker I know smokes imported John Player Blue purchased at least half the price than in Ireland and purched by the 100's. These people are going to continue to smoke and smoke and smoke. They spend thousands on fags yearly and thereby increasing the revenue coffers in Spain and Canary Islands. That revenue is being lost here and it is stupid to think graphic images on fag boxes will deter anybody from smoking.

I havent seent any decent argument here not to reduce the price of cigarettes in Ireland. If I am causing offence to any other non smoker it is not meant I see smoking as another way of legally taking one's own life albeit over a long period of time.


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## ajapale (5 Feb 2013)

Leper said:


> So much for the smoking ban.



The smoking ban in the workplace stated aim was to protect workers.



Leper said:


> I haven't seen any decent argument here not to reduce the price of cigarettes in Ireland.



Agreed, but I haven't seen any decent argument here to reduce the price of cigarettes in Ireland.


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## casiopea (5 Feb 2013)

Leper said:


> My whole point is that cigarette smokers are not going to kick the habit (although I concede that some do) and that graphic dreadful images of cancer etc appearing on cigarette boxes is only paying lip service to the anti smoking lobby.



I would have thought that the target market of the campaign is new smokers, especially young teenagers, who are very impressionable and that type of image would have an impact on. 



Leper said:


> Does anybody know a doctor who does not smoke? While we are at it what percentage of nurses smoke?



No. Not sure what your point is here.  Most of the healthcare community I would know in Ireland (and Switzerland for that matter) would not smoke.


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## MrMan (5 Feb 2013)

I remember a brand of cigs called death and they came in a black packet, and they were like magnets to teen boys. Graphic images make it almost cooler to show that you just don't care.


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## Complainer (11 Feb 2013)

I was at Minister O'Reilly's launch of the new cigarette packets - the big bloated purulent neck, the horrible mouthful of stained teeth - and then he took out the new cigarette packets.

[Thanks to Phoenix Magazine]


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## Bill Struth (12 Feb 2013)

complainer said:


> i was at minister o'reilly's launch of the new cigarette packets - the big bloated purulent neck, the horrible mouthful of stained teeth - and then he took out the new cigarette packets.
> 
> [thanks to phoenix magazine]


Ha ha!


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## geri (1 Mar 2013)

As there are people on here with an interest in quitting smoking, I just want to give my experience of trying to quit smoking.  I am 42 and have smoked since I was an teenager.  Over the years there have been some half hearted attempts, that lasted a few days or maybe weeks at a push, but I always went back on them.  I have a four year old son, who as any little boy, has his mum as the centre of his life.  So anyway, I start hearing this quit smoking add on the radio.   Its about a teenage girl , and she's talking about her mum who was a smoker, how she was always there for her, if she had any problems in school etc.  She was 45 when she was diagnosed with lung cancer, and 46 when she died.  This really hit home with me.  I started to imagine what life would be like for my son without a mother.  I have to say it brought me to tears.  So, I gave up smoking on 04 Jan.  For him.  One slip up a week later when I was on a night out with other smokers, but none since.  Its very hard to give up - make no mistake about that.  I have found the nicorette spray to be good.
I suppose the message here is that I never really had the will power to give up just for myself, its my son that I'm doing it for.  I imagine alot of other smokers are the same.  I think more ads should be directed to the impact on a familys life on the death of a smoker, that the individual themselves.  It's what did it for me.


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## Leper (1 Mar 2013)

Great post Geri.  I wish you luck with your attempts to give up smoking and hope you do.


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## Firefly (1 Mar 2013)

Well done Geri. Stick the money away and treat yourself to something nice


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## geri (5 Mar 2013)

Thanks Leper and Firefly for the words of encouragment.  Still off them - (weekends are the worst tho!)


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## elefantfresh (5 Mar 2013)

I'm off them since October 1st last year - just over 5 months now.
I just imagine the % of the price of a pack of 20 thats going straight into Berties pension. That stops me buying them every single time.


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## Duke of Marmalade (18 Mar 2013)

Just bought a packet of cigars.  It warns that smoking can cause impotence and the graphic is a highly suggestive drooping cigarette

Is this not against Advertising Board standards?  I suppose your normal cigar smoker would not be offended by this but all the same


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## Purple (19 Mar 2013)

Duke of Marmalade said:


> Just bought a packet of cigars.  It warns that smoking can cause impotence and the graphic is a highly suggestive drooping cigarette
> 
> Is this not against Advertising Board standards?  I suppose your normal cigar smoker would not be offended by this but all the same



It's sexist!


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