Fuel pumps ‘should carry cigarette-style warnings’

A group of public health experts have called for petrol and diesel pumps to carry health warnings similar to those on cigarette packets.

These could include blackened lungs and flooded homes.

One scientist said the images would need to be “shocking” to have an effect, reports The Times.

The labels should be introduced ahead of November’s COP26 climate change conference in November.

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Similar emissions warning labels are already carried on fuel pumps in Vancouver, Canada. Sweden will introduce them in May.

Dr Mike Gill, one of the experts making the call, says telling consumers at the point of use about the climate and health risks could change attitudes and behaviour.

“Warning labels connect the abstract threat of the climate emergency with the use of fossil fuels in the here and now.”

The call is reported in the latest issue of The British Medical Journal, as part of a series of features on planetary health.