Gelsenkirchen, Germany (dpo) - Having discovered a brutal graphic health warning on his packet of cigarettes, a 53 year-old man from Gelsenkirchen, Germany, died of a heart attack this morning. Critics of the tobacco industry regard the man’s death as proof that the graphic health warnings are working – after all, he finally stopped smoking after 39 years.
“This is where my Heinz bought his cigarettes every day”, sobs the man’s widow, Corinna B, pointing towards a run-down filling station. “But this morning, he didn’t come home. I always worried that his smoking habit would kill him eventually – but not like this!” The checkout assistant from the filling station, Jens R, recounts, “I had just received a new delivery of cigarettes this morning. I handed a pack to the customer and at first he just looked confused at the picture of open-heart surgery on the front. Then, his eyes widened all of a sudden and he went completely white, clutched his chest and fell to the floor.”
A call was placed promptly to emergency services but the doctor on call was only able to declare the man dead. The authorities believe that he died from a heart attack. Jens R says, “I really just needed a smoke to calm my nerves – thankfully I keep a couple ready rolled in my tobacco pouch, where I don’t have to see these graphic health warnings!”
In order to avoid unnecessary deaths like Heinz B’s, the Federal Ministry of Health now plans to introduce warning notices to alert cigarette buyers to the dangers of the graphic health warnings. These are to be placed directly on the graphic health warnings and should cover at least 40% of their surface displaying text warnings such as, “The shock of graphic health warnings can be fatal” and “The shock of graphic health warnings can cause cardiac arrhythmia”.
fed, dan, ssi; picture [M]: Shutterstoc; first published 2020-02-10
Read the German version HERE.