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Charity Welcomes Graphic Images On Smoking

Thursday 30 August 2007

The NI Chest Heart & Stroke has welcomed the graphic images on tobacco packs to help smokers quit the addictive habit.

The NI Chest Heart & Stroke has welcomed the graphic images on tobacco packs to help smokers quit the addictive habit.

Andrew Dougal, Chief Executive of NI Chest Heart & Stroke (NICHS) said that, "Government proposals to introduce graphic images of internal organs harmed by smoking will be an additional incentive to help smokers quit. One in two smokers will die because of their addiction. In Northern Ireland 8 people will die today and every day because of smoking. For some people this may be enough of an incentive to conquer the addiction of nicotine. Others will need more graphic imagery."

"Nicotine is more addictive than heroine or cocaine. Therefore smokers may need all the help they can get to conquer this habit."

"I recall as a schoolboy in 1963 being shown diseased lungs of those who had died from lung cancer. More than 40 years later that memory is still very vivid."

"We were given a presentation by the college doctor and a film which highlighted the work of Sir Richard Doll whose research found the link between smoking and lung cancer. Trophies were taken from the corridor and replaced by encased lungs - white lungs of individuals who had died in road traffic accidents and blackened lungs of smokers killed by nicotine addiction. This was a vivid daily reminder of the lethal danger of smoking."

"The warnings should be placed on both sides of the pack. All EU countries should implement these vivid warnings as soon as possible for the sake of the health of their population."

 

Ends

 

Note to Editors

Sir Richard Doll who researched the link between smoking and diseases from the 1950s until his death in 2005, visited Belfast in June 2005 to lay the foundation stone for the building of NICHS Headquarters at 21 Dublin Road, Belfast

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