Reported on July 31, 2009

 New York City tobacco retailers may soon be required to display images of cancer-riddled lungs and other graphic anti-smoking signs next to their cash registers. Some of these signs could be as big as 3 feet by 3 feet and will be required to be hung at eye level.

Should retailers be worried that these gruesome images will turn off their customers and cause them to lose business?

An image of a potential anti-smoking sign. Photo courtesy of The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Eh, not so much.

“It’s not going to make any difference,” said Zeeshan Saeed, a clerk at Sheeba Newstand, Grocery and Deli at 1029 Brighton Beach Ave.

Zack Sharhan, whose father owns the neighboring Brighton Deli and Appetizing, agrees.

“Even after all of these new taxes people are still buying cigarettes,” he said. “This might prevent some people but not a lot.”

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene begs to differ and has proposed a health code amendment designed to force all 12,000 tobacco retailers in the city to post such signs wherever tobacco products are displayed.

Smokers’ behaviors are strongly influenced by their understanding of the health risks of smoking, according to the health department, and the more they know about the dangers the more likely they are to quit.  Additionally, graphic warnings are more effective than text-only ones, especially among young people.

John Dimaano, 26, who has been smoking since he was a teenager, is starting to believe it.

“I’ve been seeing those commercials. It’s starting to scare me,” he said while looking at a prototype warning sign. “Yeah, I might quit if I started seeing this.”

Even though a series of intensive tobacco control efforts, which began in 2002, has lead to a significant decrease in the city’s smoking rate – from 21.5% in 2002 to 15.8% in 2008 – about 950,000 New Yorkers still smoke and each year 7,400 of them die because of it, according to the health department. That’s more than AIDS, drugs, homicide and suicide combined.

“While the tobacco industry spends billions of dollars every year to glamorize smoking, we will show New Yorkers the harsh realities,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, New York City health commissioner, in a June 24 press release.

Opponents of the amendment don’t see this solely as a public health issue, however.  James Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, is one of them.

“It’s a small-business issue as well,” he said.  Adding that the ghoulish signs of black lungs will be seen by all customers, not just the ones who smoke, and that some of them will not want to go into the store anymore.

Yelena Makhnin, executive director of the Brighton Beach Business Improvement District, agrees, saying that the proposed regulation is just another way for the government to get fines from businesses that may oppose such “art.”

The health department maintains that the goal of the amendment is not to hurt businesses but to protect consumers and that retailers who choose to sell such a dangerous product have an obligation to warn people of the risks – according to its Web site.

Regardless of the warnings, smokers are skeptical that the signs will make a difference. Among them is Makhnin, who has been smoking most of her life.

“Even though I believe smoking is bad, I’m still a smoker,” she said. “This won’t work.”

The amendment does not require City Council approval, but the Board of Health held a public hearing on the matter on June 30. Board members will vote on the amendment in September. A date for when the new rule will go into effect, should it be approved, has not been set.