Will photos of nicotine-damaged gums and cancer-ridden lungs be enough to make smokers quit their habit?
“On Monday, June 9, the Senate approved on third and final reading a bill mandating graphic warnings on cigarette packs, paving the way for enactment into law this week of the latest measure in the arsenal of the anti-tobacco groups,’ reports Ernie Reyes on InterAksyon.com.
The report noted: “Voting 18 affirmative, zero negative and zero abstentions, senators now start preparing for the final phase of the battle: in the bicameral conference committee where the House of Representatives and Senate panels thresh out a measure that anti-tobacco advocates warned could be severely watered down as a result of Big Tobacco lobbying.”
The bill is expected to be passed and made into law before Congress adjourns on June 11, but there has been mounting concern in recent weeks that the markedly watered down version will pass, amid a strong lobby by Big Tobacco.
Anti-smoking advocates want a bill that requires manufacturers to cover the lower part of the cigarette box with a graphic health warning, not the top section “where it can easily be hidden or covered when held,” says Atty Ipat Luna, trustee of HealthJustice Philippines.
She warned that if GHWs were allowed to be placed at the bottom portion, “PNoy’s administration will be remembered worldwide as the only one to have kowtowed to tobacco companies.” She reasoned that as long as the tobacco industry is empowered by this administration through the IACT, “the vision of ‘daang matuwid’ will not be fulfilled.”
Photo from MorgueFile
