From the MPower Report, the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008 (p.54/56) (pdf format)
Warning people about the harms of tobacco use is essential and can be achieved in many ways.
This initial report on the global tobacco epidemic reviews countries' requirements for size and characteristics of health warnings on tobacco packs, which disseminate health information at no cost to government except for enforcement.
Government action to prevent deceptive and misleading terms (such as "light" and "low tar") was also reviewed. Future reports will assess a wider range of public education measures, including public education campaigns.
Pack warnings should cover at least half of packaging display areas and feature rotating, pictorial warnings. Widespread use of effective warning labels would provide important knowledge about tobacco's health threat and counter false information spread by the tobacco industry.
Weak health warnings on tobacco packs -or no warnings at all- continue to be the global norm. As a result, the least expensive way to convey the health risks of tobacco consumption to users and potential users is largely unused.
Of the 176 countries that provided information on pack warnings, only 15 countries, covering 6% of the world's population, require pictorial warnings (covering at least 30% of the principal surface area) on packs of cigarettes and other tobacco products, and only five countries, representing 4% of the world's population, meet all criteria for pack warnings.
These countries, which are in different regions and have diverse social characteristics and income levels, show what can and should be done.
Of the countries that provided information, 77 do not mandate any warnings at all.
There are 25 countries that require pack warnings covering less than 30% of the main display areas; most of these warnings are very small.
Another 45 countries have warnings that cover 30% of the main display areas, and only 29% have warnings larger than 30% of the main display areas.
Warnings are often weakly worded, vaguely stating that tobacco is bad for health but without mentioning specific diseases that it causes.
Only 66 countries have laws that ban the use of deceptive tobacco industry marketing terms, such as "light" and "low tar", from tobacco packaging.
More than 40% of the world's population lives in countries that do not prevent the tobacco industry from using these and other misleading and deceptive terms.
Some countries have implemented effective pack warnings. Thailand requires that each pack of cigarettes include a pictorial health warning that covers at least 50% of both sides of the package.
These startling pictorial warnings, which feature images of rotting teeth, blackened lungs and babies breathing tobacco smoke, were mandated by the government despite threats of legal action from a tobacco company.
Countries can easily improve their policies by increasing warning sizes, strengthening the wording of warnings and including pictures.
Countries that do not mandate effective pack warnings and do not prohibit deceptive and misleading terms fail to provide their populations with the most basic form of protection from a serious health threat - accurate information and protection from deception by the tobacco industry.
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