Graphic pictures of what smoking does to the body must be put on cigarette packages sooner rather than later...

In the past two years, more than 30,000 children, some as young as 10 years old, have started smoking. And the health costs of just three smoking-related diseases — ischemic heart disease, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — came to about RM3 billion in 2004, 0.1 to 1.1 per cent of gross domestic product.

More than 10,000 people a year die of smoking-related illnesses. That’s one person every hour, says the co-coordinator for the Clearinghouse for Tobacco Control (C-Tob) at the National Poison Centre (NPC) at University Sains Malaysia, Professor Dr Rahmat Awang.

He is calling on the government not to wait until the deadline to fulfill its obligations under the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Under the agreement, which Malaysia ratified in 2005, countries have three years to put in place limits on the production, sale, distribution and advertising of cigarettes, and to formulate government anti-smoking policies, like taxation, to limit smoking. Dr Rahmat said the government should not wait until the November 2008 deadline, but implements the warnings now because the current warnings on cigarette packets were ineffective. Singapore and Thailand had already done so.

He said C-Tob had presented the results of a study to the Health Ministry, and would soon present a second study.C-Tob also gave the ministry samples of graphic health warnings on cigarette packs used in countries such as Australia, Canada, Singapore and Thailand.

The principal investigator for the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation (Malaysia) of the NPC, Dr Maizurah Omar, said a study two years ago found that only half the adults surveyed noticed the health warnings on cigarette packets.She said 70 per cent of the adult male smokers found smoking "normal", and the graphic warning labels and warnings of specific consequences were the best means of spreading the message.

Read Interesting Marlboro Facts