Smoking Awareness Society (Kafa), a non-profit group which helps smokers kick the habit and spreads awareness of the dangers of tobacco, has said that the Kingdom needs to follow the rest of the world and print warning images on cigarette packets if it is to take the fight against tobacco seriously. “The GCC Ministers of Health approved the move but nothing has been done since,” said Abdullah Sarouji, Executive Director of Kafa (meaning in Arabic “enough”). According to Sarouji warnings and photographs have been found by many countries to be an effective way of reducing the number of smokers. “The photos have greatly helped in smokers cutting down their intake and giving up the habit completely. They also deter many people from not starting,” Sarouji said. “They are used in 25 countries including Egypt, Jordan, Djibouti and Iran.” In many countries, graphic – some would say shocking – images showing a variety of afflictions that befall smokers cover large portions of cigarette packets, along with blunt warnings to the consumer. “For maximum benefit, photographs should be clear and bright and be varied from time to time, and not covered by text. They should portray real-life examples of the dangers of smoking and avoid misleading information such as ‘light with low tar',” Sarouji said. According to Sarouji a study conducted in one country showed that 75 percent of people supported the use of the images and that 55 percent underwent a change of opinion on smoking due to the photographs.
