IN A week in which the European Union decided to increase the size and horror
factor of health warnings on cigarette packets, 91av can
exclusively reveal a new twist: a talking cigarette packet that recites a health
warning every time you open it. Ironically, the idea comes from a firm that
supplies machinery to make cigarettes.
The revelation comes from a patent (GB 2351061) filed by Molins in High
Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. A stiff plastic strip connects the hinged lid of a
cigarette packet to a microchip and a miniature loudspeaker hidden in the base.
As the smoker opens the lid, the strip slides to close a switch and trigger
playback of a small recording, which could be music—a funeral march,
perhaps—or a health warning “in any or several languages”.
Anti-smoking organisation Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is highly amused
by the idea of a cigarette packet which verbally tells a smoker “this may kill
you”. But spokeswoman Amanda Sandford fears that it’s something “tobacco
companies would only use if required by law”.
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But Molins’ spokesman Andrew Pennycook thinks it could prove popular: “The
industry is always looking for innovations that give an advantage,” he says.
