A leading health charity has called on Health Minister James Reilly to introduce plain packaging on cigarettes and tobacco products as the next step in the war against smoking.

From today, tobacco products placed on the market must comply with new regulations requiring them to include graphic warnings and explicit photographs on the negative health effects of smoking. The new law has been introduced nearly four years after it was originally promised.

The Irish Heart Foundation says while this is welcome, the Minister should go further.

Its Director of Advocacy, Chris Macey, said while the introduction of these images is a welcome development, international evidence shows that plain packaging, which retains the graphic warnings but removes all brand imagery, is an even more effective deterrent.

"We urge the Government to follow the example of Australia and introduce plain packs as quickly as is legally possible. Such a move would effectively end the last legal form of tobacco advertising in Ireland."

The IHF says graphic warnings provide strong motivation for adult smokers to quit, with anew study from Harvard University showing that 30% more smokers exposed to these images said they would give up within the next month than those exposed only to warnings in writing on packs.

The Heart Foundation pointed out that smoking in younger people is a particular problem, with 12% of nine to 18-year-olds currently smoking in Ireland and 78% of smokers taking up the habit before the age of 18.

Mr Macey pointed out that Health Minister James Reilly had said he was keen to introduce plain packaging.

He said tobacco companies had recently lost a legal challenge taken against the Australian Govermnment on the introduction of plain packaging.

Meanwhile, ASH Ireland said the new warnings in this country were a most welcome and necessary development.

Dr Ross Morgan of ASH Ireland said the legislation will show graphic images that will inform smokers of the reality facing them.

"One in two smokers die as a direct result of their smoking and tragically over 5,200 die in this country each year. The Australian Government recently introduced plain packaging, combined with graphic warnings on all tobacco packs, and we encourage Minister Reilly to follow the Australian example."

Under long-promised new legislation all tobacco products placed on the market from today onwards must carry the new graphic warnings.

Any tobacco products placed on the market prior to February 1 can continue to be sold or offered for sale until February 1 2014.

Under rules governing the use of graphic warnings, the Department of Health has stipulated that manufacturers cannot change the proportion or colour of the graphic image or amend it in any way. The image must also comply with specific size requirements.

There are 14 images which Ireland selected from the library of images developed by the European Commission. 

Plans to introduce graphic warnings on cigarette packs were first announced by in May 2008 by the then Health Minister Mary Harney, following EU recommendations first made at EU level in 2001.

Launching the graphic warnings initiative yesterday, Health Minister James Reilly said he hoped the introduction of the graphic photo images will give people a clearer understanding of the great dangers of smoking.

"Half, or one in two, of all long-term smokers will die from smoking related diseases.  This is a stark statistic.  There is no doubt that if tobacco were discovered today, knowing what we know about its lethal effects, it would not be a legal product."

"I am committed to reducing the number of young people starting to smoke and those current smokers," the Minister said.

Dr Reilly said if, by introducing these graphic images on cigarette packs, some people are shocked into considering how smoking  impacts on them and their families then the warnings will have achieved their objective.