The government is shortly expected to issue a legal notice that will make pictorial messages on tobacco packaging obligatory, in a bid to discourage smoking, Director of Health Ray Busuttil said yesterday.

Speaking during the launch of an EU-wide anti-smoking campaign, Dr Busuttil said only three or four EU countries have introduced pictorial messages on tobacco packaging.

“The legal notice will be issued next week or the week after that. Tobacco manufacturers would have to use a number of pictorials recommended by the EU and the World Health Organisation (WHO),” said Dr Busuttil.

Health Parliamentary Secretary Joe Cassar said it is estimated that one in every four people in Malta are smokers, meaning that about 300,000 people could be suffering the consequences of indirect smoking.

Charmaine Gauci, the Head of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department, said that the Health Interview Survey showed that the number of smokers had gone down from 23.3 per cent of the population in 2002 to 20 per cent in 2008.

However, she said, the Health Behaviour in School Children (HBSC) survey showed that the number of 15-year-old smokers increased from 38.8 per cent in 2002 to 42 per cent in 2006.

Dr Gauci spoke about the problems associated with smoking, saying that while lung cancer is the main disease related to tobacco, smokers stand a high risk of developing other cancers (mouth, throat and pancreatic cancer, for instance), and cardiovascular disease, and they are also more susceptible to infections.

She also mentioned the cost related to smoking, both the direct cost to smokers, the burden on the health system, as well as productivity levels due to sick leave.

Stephen D’Alessandro, the local representative of Ligaris Europe, the agency that the European Commission entrusted to coordinate the EU-wide anti-smoking campaign, explained that because of the increase in the number of young smokers, the new campaign is heavily focused on social networking sites on the internet such as Facebook and Twitter.

Following on from the first “Help” campaign (2004-2008), “Help 2.0” targets primarily young people and young adults. The general motto is providing help and support “for a life without tobacco” by delivering comprehensive information on health and social problems related to tobacco consumption.

Help 2.0 is an integrated campaign including television, the internet and new media such as mini-sites accessible through mobile phones.

The whole campaign is “web driven”, the objective being to draw young people to the Help website where they can get all the information on the dangers of smoking as well as the links to partner organisations such as the European Network of Quitlines.

The website is available in 22 languages and the web and media campaign will be complemented by a series of European and national public and press relations events.

The campaign aims to empower young people to take control of their health and lifestyles, instead of simply being objects in the eyes of the media.

This campaign is being fully developed with the help and advice of the target group: Both individuals and youth organisations. For example, the idea for one of the new TV spots has come directly from an internet consultation with young people.

Another example of youth participation is the presence of medical students as part of national teams’ field events.

The creative strategy focuses on the collection, presentation, and implementation of “tips” – absurd and serious – addressing the three traditional tobacco-control themes (prevention, cessation and passive smoking).

The best tips will be used as creative material and could even be turned into future TV spots or be part of an online campaign. As this is an EU-wide campaign, the strategy will be fine-tuned at national or even regional levels according to the cultural and social needs.

For more information on the campaign visit www.help-eu.com.