Putting out the smoke- the test of toughness

Ireland to introduce plain cigarette packets | World news | guardian.co.uk: "An Irish government minister has revealed his father and brother died from smoking-related illness as the country becomes only the second to clamp down on tobacco marketing.

Ireland will force tobacco manufacturers to use plain boxes emblazoned with graphic images under tough new laws first enforced in Australia.

Dr James Reilly, the health minister and a GP, said the initiative will stop big cigarette companies from using marketing tactics like packet size, colour and style to attract young smokers, particularly girls.

Reilly said he had been touched personally by suffering caused by smoking after his brother died of lung cancer and his father went blind following a stroke.

Both were smokers and both were doctors.

"I lost a brother who was a doctor, who understood fully what the cigarettes did, who was so addicted he couldn't give them up," Reilly said.

"And my father was prematurely blind because of a stroke and spent the last 14 years of his life without being able to see.""

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