I realize it is no longer popular to smoke. (By the way, that makes it much more difficult to buy a quick gift from a tourist shop. Remember the terrible ash trays your parents had in the 70’s?) So this post is not about whether I smoke, cigarette butts on the streets, or banning smoking in restaurants.
It is about America and it’s BS attempt to appear like we care about the health issues caused by smoking and second-hand smoke. There have been tons of lawsuits followed by lame laws and minor changes. But what’s been done is minimal compared to other countries, including developing countries.
Turkey (and many other countries) puts the U.S. to shame when it comes informing consumers. Consumers aren’t idiots. Smoking is bad for your health. Got it. But people are going to smoke anyway. What consumers want to know is the contents. They want to make informed decisions.
For years, Europe has been posting warnings on cigarette packs in big black bold letters – not in fine print on the side of the package as done in the States: Smoking Kills! Smoking Causes Impotence!
Turkey does the same.
Turkey even takes it a step further with nasty pictures to go with it:
The biggest difference though – putting the U.S. to shame – is the lack of information available. No where on a U.S. pack can one find the ingredients of the cigarette. How much nicotine? Tar? And let’s not forget carbon monoxide?!
Not only is this crucial information missing from the packs, it can’t be easily found on the web! What the heck?!
For example, a favorite of female Turkish smokers is Bianca Rose (actually, we call it “Pembe“, or pink.) It’s produced by the Imperial Tobacco Company, SA.
A quick Google search reveals they have less than 0.5 mg of each of those categories. The only comparable cigarette I know of in the States is Capri. Like Bianca, it is a super slim smoke, and the boxes are indicated by colors.
Capri Magenta are made by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Go ahead and Google them. See how long it takes you to find out how much nicotine is in them. You won’t find it on the pack! You certainly can’t ask the cashier what the difference is between the many colors they sell. I can give you a tip though. If you are thinking of trying them – the blue pack is menthol.
How is one supposed to know what they are smoking? Making an informed choice is just impossible. And the difference in price between these 2 products? Bianca are 4.75TL, about $2.60. Capri? I can’t put the price in this post – my husband will kill me!
And therein lies enough reason to just not do it!
Adventures in Ankara 
We’re trying to give up the dreaded weed now we’re are back in England. It’s impossible to find anywhere to smoke anyway and, at £8 a packet, it’s the right time. I’m rubbing my nicotine patch as I type. Here is Britain, the manufacturers have been forced to put nasty pictures on packets too and descriptions like ‘light’ are banned. The writing’s on the wall (or on the pack, as the case may be).
Good luck with that Jack! In the States, we have a pill, Chantix, that is just awesome if you don’t get bad side effects. Really works in just 3 months. No nicotine. One day you just forget to smoke.
I think this warning on the link is the one that works best 🙂
I’ll have to pull out the translator for that one! Thanks for sharing and for reading my blog! I hope you will come back often!
The stickers are one of Turkey’s few efforts at getting in line with Europe. Certainly they’ve been used in the UK for years and years (and, yes, now we have pictures of dirty lungs and cancer patients on packs now too.)
Some clever sod used the opportunity to market these: