Soon Massachusetts can become the first U.S State to oblige tobacco sellers to place strong graphing warnings depicting the risks of tobacco consumption exactly in those places are tobacco products are sold – next to the counters and in the store sections where cigarettes are shelved.
Graphic signs showing injured lungs, diseased brains, damaged teeth and other severe health complications may be placed in over 9,000 tobacco shops, convenience stores, gas stations and other points of sales of tobacco products by the end of 2010, if a bill introduced by local Public Health Department is adopted. Other graphic signs would notify smokers where to go and call in order to get rid of smoking.
Sellers who do not place the posters within 2 feet of sections where tobacco products are selling and cash registers would be fined up to $300.
The Massachusetts Retailers Association criticized the proposal, stating that small stores have already been hurt dramatically by of too many regulations and rules.
The proposal should be approved by the Massachusetts Public Health Council; however the members of the panel already expressed its full support of the measure.
The posters resemble a similar campaign initiated last year in New York City, where such graphic signs about severe health risks related to tobacco use started appearing in 11,500 stores around the City. Massachusetts public health officials used the New York City signs to illustrate how local posters will look like.
Carol Perkins, spokeswoman for Massachusetts Smoking Prevention Campaign said that smokers who are trying to give up their habit are lured to smoking by seeing the packs on the shelves, and the introduction of the graphic sings will remind them of their decision to stop smoking.
The program will be funded by stimulus money, which will permit Health Department to distribute posters at no charge. The posters will be printed by independent company in order to comply with the requirement of the stimulus money to be used for creating new jobs.
Posters showing the dangers of smoking have been on of the key points of anti-smoking programs in European Union recently. However in the U.S. warning placed on cigarette packs relied much more on words than on the images, which are simply not effective, according to some scientists.
The Massachusetts Retailers Association is currently planning to challenge the initiative, however Jon Hurst, the president of the Association has admitted that the major part of retailers will be more than dissatisfied with yet another ridiculous rule. And this issue particularly concerns corner stores, where sales of tobacco products account for a considerable share of revenues.
Philip Morris USA, the leading cigarette maker across the nation and the owner of Marlboro, world’s best selling cigarette stated it considers that graphic warnings in points of sale should be approved by the Congress or the U.S Food and Drug Administration, instead of adopting them on state legislature level.
Public Health Council is scheduled to vote on graphic signs in August.