This means that warning signs such as those on cigarette packets may only have limited impact.

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Or would warnings on bottles of alcohol, similar to those found on cigarette packets help raise awareness?

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The proposal could mean information about individual brands being removed from cigarette packets, with just the name and warnings visible.

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Ministers consulted last year on bringing in plain cigarette packets.

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Di Giovanni would not comment on future commercial activities with the team, such as speculation that Marlboro could put Ferrari branding on cigarette packets as a way around the legislation.

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But cigarette packets will no longer be mini, mobile advertising boards and, for those working to reduce smoking levels, plain packaging is an important stage in the shift to a smoking-free society.

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Tobacco firms from the United States, for example, assert that the Canadian government's requirement that health warnings on cigarette packets should be bigger than the brand name amounts to expropriation of their intangible assets.

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The Commission is encouraging countries to put picture warnings on cigarette packets which would feature photos of blackened lungs and from July this year tobacco firms will be banned from advertising at sporting events such as formula one car racing.

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It has promised to give state governments a portion of its profits for a quarter of a century, admitted that cigarettes cause cancer and that nicotine is addictive, undertaken to say so on its cigarette packets, and offered to disclose documents recording the industry's internal strategy discussions.

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