Haughey stands firm on legislation that will see tobacco products carry health warnings.
New regulations for health warnings on cigarette packets and advertisements for tobacco products will become law on 31 January 1979, when the Tobacco Products (Control of Advertising, Sponsorship and Sales Promotion) Act, 1978 comes into effect.
Minister for Health Charles Haughey has requested that all cigarette packets and advertisement for tobacco products must contain the health warning ‘Smokers Die Younger’. The tobacco companies say this is not workable and have requested amendments to their advertisements in newspapers and magazines.
The Irish government is standing firm on its anti-smoking policy, and companies will have to comply says Minister Charles Haughey,
It’s true, unfortunately. People who smoke do die younger.
The wording is based on what any doctor would say to someone who smokes, as the Minister has been in consultation with the College of Physicians in Ireland,
This is their suggestion, with their full authority, and with their medical opinion fully behind it.
It is as yet unclear as to how this will affect cigarette advertisements in foreign publications sold in Ireland. Minister Haughey is not in favour of censorship of newspapers and has no plans to prevent their sale in Ireland. He is confident however that British publishers and advertisers will find a solution, as there is a lot of good will on the other side of the Irish Sea for the government’s anti-tobacco controls,
They are fully sympathetic to what we are trying to do and indeed many of them are entirely for us, in these efforts we’re making.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 12 January 1979. The reporter is Michael Fisher.
