<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>341558</docID> <postdate>2025-04-01 09:18:46</postdate> <headline>Unfiltered warnings aim to shock smokers into quitting</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-341559" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/20160503001252996519-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>New and stronger health warnings will appear on individual cigarettes and inserts in packets. (Sam Mooy/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Abe Maddison</strong></span></p> <p><strong>Starker warnings on packets and blunt phrases printed on individual cigarettes will send unfiltered health messages to smokers.</strong></p> <p>Australia has become the second country in the world to introduce warnings on individual cigarettes, following Canada's lead.</p> <p>The mandatory changes to tobacco products from Tuesday include a phased ban on menthol in cigarettes, 10 graphic health warnings on packs and 10 health promotion inserts inside packs.</p> <p>The updated imagery was important because smokers had become accustomed to seeing the current warnings, Cancer Council Victoria's Sarah Durkin said.</p> <p>The new warnings also featured harmful impacts of smoking that people may not be aware of such as diabetes, erectile dysfunction, cervical cancer, DNA damage, and the impact of second-hand smoke on children's lung capacity.</p> <p>"Graphic health warnings have long proven effective in increasing knowledge about the harms of smoking, preventing smoking uptake and encouraging people who smoke to quit," Prof Durkin said.</p> <p>Health warnings on individual Australian cigarettes will include phrases such as "CAUSES 16 CANCERS", "DAMAGES YOUR LUNGS" and "DAMAGES DNA".</p> <p>Experts believe that cigarettes with a health warning printed on the filter better convey the risks and harms because it doesn't disappear as the cigarette burns.</p> <p>Quit director Rachael Andersen said the new warnings and health promotion inserts would "act as both a disincentive to smoke and a bridge to services such as Quitline and quit.org.au".</p> <p>"There's no doubt quitting smoking can be hard, people tell us so all the time," she said.</p> <p>Last week's federal budget revealed $6.9 billion had been wiped off tobacco excise projections to 2029, with about one in five smokers shifting to illicit cigarettes or vapes.</p> <p>In response, $157 million will be pumped into federal health, crime and tax agencies over two years to strengthen enforcement and target crime gangs.</p> <p>In Victoria, there have been more than 100 firebombings over two years as organised criminals nationwide focus on the booming and lucrative black market.</p> </body>