PHOTO: Kazakhstan tries to frighten off smokers with impotence and cancer

Kazakhstan Ministry of Healthcare is reviewing the options of daunting images approved by EurAzEC to appear on cigarette packs by 2012, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Head of National Coalition For Tobacco-Free Kazakhstan Dzhamilya Sadykova. Kazakhstan Ministry of Healthcare suggested this method of countering smoking in EurAzEC countries. The meeting of the Healthcare Council under the Integration Commission of EurAzEC was held on June 16, 2011 in Astana. The participants supported the idea of countering smoking with shocking images on cigarette packs. The graphic images were approved during the meeting. They will appear on the packs in all EurAzEC countries. It is expected that up to 20 percent of smokers will quit smoking in the first year of the experiment. Sadykova emphasized that tobacco companies are totally against this innovations: “They throw sand in the wheels, write letters to the government and President's office. They realize that such “de-glamourization” of the package will help people find out the truth about what these companies actually produce.” According to Sadykova, over 27 percent of Kazakhstan citizens are smokers, which is 4.2 million people. “Such images will appear on cigarette packs in 18 months after the President signs the respective law in effect,” she said. Around 50 different daunting images will appear on cigarette packs in EurAzEC countries. 25 thousand people die from smoking in Kazakhstan every year. The most employable population of the country - men of 30-55 and women of 20-45 - fall victims to the tobacco epidemics.