Health Minister Jakob Axel Nielsen favours attaching pictures to cigarette packs showing the effects of smoking

Based on a recommendation from the Prevention Commission, the Health Ministry will now place pictures of cancer-stricken adults and children on cigarette packages in an effort to get smokers to think twice about lighting up, reports MetroXpress newspaper.

Pictures of blackened lungs, bodies lying in a morgue and children with oxygen masks have been proposed as some the ministry may use as part of its plan.

‘I think the idea for using pictures is a good one,’ said Jakob Axel Nielsen, the health minister. ‘I believe it will be implemented when the government launches its national prevention-based health plan after the summer holidays.’

But Nielsen does not need the government’s backing to put the proposal into effect. According to law, the Health Ministry has the authority to do that itself, but Nielsen already has the backing of his government majority party, the Liberals, on the issue.

In addition, the Social Democrats - the largest opposition party - also support the proposal.

The National Cancer Society expressed its satisfaction that the long-discussed proposal is finally being implemented. It pointed out that a comprehensive Canadian study showed that cancer pictures do have a preventive effect.

But the association lamented the fact that the government will probably not enact the Prevention Commission’s proposal to raise the price of cigarettes to 50 kroner a pack.