graphic warnings

Graphic health warnings need to cover the entire surface of cigarette packages if they are to become more effective

Graphic health warnings need to cover almost the entire surface of cigarette packages if they are to become more effective in convincing smokers to kick the deadly habit, new Health Canada research found. (here the report in pdf format).
"Findings suggest that increasing the current size of warnings of cigarette packages is not very effective to negatively affect image of smokers or perception of cigarette product attributes, unless health warning messages occupy the entire front panel," the study states.

Source: Canwest News Service

What company would keep the same ads for 7 years?

That's why the graphic health warnings should change regularly (every six months like in Australia) and automatically, ie without having to return to the legislature or a complex regulatory process.
Canada made the first step when introducing graphic health warnings but missed out on the good way to keep them most effective. Not raised in the article is the option that the ads could also  use other  types of images and messages for instance lovertising :)

Source: Can News Service

Country comparison: literacy rates

Source: Index Mundi

Also a World Map

Egypt intoduces graphic cigarette warnings, starting August 1st

With effect from the 1st of August, cigarette packs in Egypt will feature graphic health warnings, informing smokers of the devastating health effects of smoking. Images will include: a dying man in an oxygen mask, a coughing child, a fetus with a warning of the harm to pregnancy, or a limp cigarette, symbolizing impotence.

Source: Jackie Tumwine's blog.

With effect from the 1st of August, cigarette packs in Egypt will feature graphic health warnings, informing smokers of the devastating health effects of smoking. Images will include: a dying man in an oxygen mask, a coughing child, a fetus with a warning of the harm to pregnancy, or a limp cigarette, symbolizing impotence.

Source: Jackie Tumwine's blog.

Pack Warnings: which way Africa? by Adeola Akinremi

Adeola wrote in 2007: The FCTC allows parties an accelerated period of three (3) years to introduce package warnings upon ratification. Thus, for the African countries that have ratified and made it to the COP1 they have less than two years to make good their promise to abide by the regulations of the FCTC.

In more ways than one, the warning label as contained in the article 11 of the FCTC would help Africa, if quickly implemented.
For instance specific harm message on cigarette packs will reveal a lot to African people and as such the cliché that one picture is better than a thousand words is very apt here.

FCTC - Article 11 - Packaging and labelling of tobacco products

FCTC - Article 11 - Packaging and labelling of tobacco products (p.9/10)  (pdf format)

1. Each party shall, within a period of three years after the entry into force of this Convention for that Party, adopt and implement, in accordance with its national law, effective measures to ensure that:

Few countries have comprehensive pack warnings - from the MPower report p. 54/56

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.

The role of pack warnings (MPower report p.40/41)

From the MPower report , the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008 (pages 40/41) (pdf format):
Health warnings on the packaging of all tobacco products are guaranteed to reach all users.
Tobacco manufacturers have always used packaging as a platform to reinforce brand loyalty and user's perceived self-image, particularly among young people.
Pack warnings reduce this marketing effect.

The cover of Tobacco Control Journal for June 2008

4 of Australia's 14 rotating pack warnings

New Health Warnings in Brazil

Launched for World No Tobacco Day on May 31, they are particularly strong. Here the Brazilian website and here from the Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada (where the copy is easier).

Show smoking’s effects on packs says Dr Antonio Anzueto

According to an international expert on respiratory diseases, all cigarettes sold must have graphic images showing the side effects of smoking.
Dr. Antonio Anzueto, a professor at the University of Texas Health Center, cited the rising number of smokers in the Asia-Pacific.
Scary antismoking images could dissuade people from lighting up, said Anzueto during a press conference in Singapore.

Yussuf Saloojee about the need for graphic warnings

Here is the presentation given by Yussuf Saloojee in Cape Town during the 38th World Conference on Lung Health organized by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.
LISTEN (5 min)

Filipinos want graphic warnings on cigarette packs

An unpublished survey done by the Philippine College of Chest Physicians for the September-October period showed that over 90 percent of Filipino smokers surveyed want picture-based warnings on the cigarette packs, instead of the usual textual-based ones.
The study, said anti-smoking group Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance, Philippines (FCAP), shows that even smokers know how effective picture-based warnings could be.

FCTC: countries start drafting the guidelines for graphic health warnings

Some 150 delegates from the Philippines and 35 other countries are meeting beginning Wednesday to Friday (Nov. 7-9) at the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region office in Manila to draft the guidelines for putting these visual health warnings on the packages of tobacco products and other provisions of Article 11 of the global Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) of WHO.

Source : bayanihan.org

UK: Imperial Tobacco CEO negates the impact of graphic warnings

Imperial Tobacco CEO Gareth Davis says he does not believe graphic warnings would change the behavior of smokers and he has seen no evidence that they have an impact.  That's a denial of the existing scientific studies and the line given by the civil servants who also oppose graphic warnings (like in France).

Philippines: A Petition for a New Law and Graphic Warnings

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP) is gathering one million signatures to convince lawmakers to file the bill. Gruesome photos of health effects on cigarette packets are aimed at discouraging people from smoking.

A report from the European Parliament's Environment Committee supports graphic warnings

LOTHIANS-BASED Euro MP David Martin has welcomed tough new moves by Brussels to deter youngsters from smoking.

The European Parliament's environment committee voted in favour of a report which proposes young people should not have access to cigarette machines and that hard-hitting picture warnings should be mandatory on all tobacco products sold in the EU.

They also called for all EU countries to ban smoking in indoor public places within two years.

Mr Martin, who sits on the environment committee, said: "Member states must commit themselves to reduce smoking among young people by at least 50 per cent by 2025 and I am pleased my colleagues voted to accept these proposals." Source: The Scotsman

China: Graphic Warnings in 2009, maybe earlier.

Chinese tobacco producers must print warning symbols, such as pictures of human skeletons and rotten lungs, on cigarette packages by January 2009 to realize the country's commitment to the "Framework Convention on Tobacco Control," an official with the Ministry of Health said today.

Source: Shanghai Daily

Finland: graphic warnings to be introduced

Mandatory pictures indicating the dangers of smoking are to be included on cigarette packages in Finland. The newspaper Kaleva writes that Social Services Minister Paula Risikko will sign a statute ordering the use of the images in the autumn.

United Kingdom: Smokers to face picture warnings... in september 2009

Images highlighting the dangers of smoking will be printed on all tobacco products sold in the UK by the end of 2009, under regulations being set out.

Manufacturers will have to start complying from October next year.
After a public consultation 15 images, including ones of diseased lungs, have been chosen to accompany text warnings about lung cancer and heart disease.

Ukraine: How the industry managed to weaken the FCTC provisions

This is the text of a poster to be presented by K.  Krasovsky and T.  Andreeva at the upcoming 4th European conference on Tobacco or Health.

India: The pictorial warnings should be in place by January 2008

The skull and crossbones will now be "optional" and the image of a dead body will be replaced.

Source: The Times of India

Thailand: A controversial picture on the pack to be replaced

The Tobacco Control Committee is to launch a new health warning picture on cigarette packs this week after the use of a conch in one of its designs stirred up public uproar.

The committee has withdrawn the old picture, which showed a hand-held conch being used to pour water onto the hand of a dead person to imply that smoking can cause death.

In Thai tradition, a conch is normally used for auspicious ceremonies such as weddings, not funerals.

Source: Bangkok Post 

The case for plain (generic) tobacco packaging

Becky Freeman and Simon Chapman have produced a comprehensive review (pdf) of relevant evidence about the plain or generic packaging of tobacco products. It draws from sources including internal tobacco industry documents, tobacco industry trade publications and a recent 2007 Morgan Stanley report which declared plain packaging to be one of three outstanding concerns today (along with tax and hiding retail displays).

Australia: 16 months after the federal government made graphic pictures compulsory smokers are still easily able to buy packs without graphic warnings

"The tobacco companies fought long and hard to delay and downsize the more effective graphic health warnings," said Professor Simon Chapman, from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

"Now, by stockpiling the old warnings, they're still delaying giving smokers the full picture about the diseases and disabilities caused by their products."

US Senators support new graphic warnings

Cigarette warning labels should cover at least half of the package's front and back and use graphic color photos of cancer and other health effects to deter smokers, U.S. Senators said.

The effort is part of ongoing debate on a bill that would allow Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products, a proposal supported by public health groups and the nation's largest cigarette maker (Philip Morris).

Warning: Poison - The Times of India

An editorial form The Times of  India.

Ministers defer decision on the proposal to print skull and crossbones on tobacco products

From The Statesman: In new Dehhli on July 11, to the disappointment of anti-smoking campaigners, the group of ministers today failed to take a decision on the proposal to print skull and crossbones on tobacco products to inform uneducated masses about the harmful effects of smoking. The GoM deferred the final decision for later this month.

Tobacco pack warnings: Vietnam has yet to get it right!

Sounds Familiar??
Vietnam Tobacco Industry’s (VINATABA) reasons why Vietnam cannot have picture-based pack warnings.
Excerpts from VINATABA’s presentation at the Workshop on Development of New Health Warnings, July 3, 2006
• Most countries in the world are using text-only health warnings, not pictorial ones.
. We are a poor developing country with outdated production technology and uncontrollable cigarette smuggling.
• Printing pictorial health warnings will be costly for the tobacco industry.

Packaging galore in Malaysia

It just took one clause in Malaysia’s Control of Tobacco Product Regulations 2004 (CTPR 2004) to start a nightmare for tobacco control advocacy.

That clause explicitly stated that restrictions on advertising “shall not apply to any tobacco product advertisement in or on a packing containing a tobacco product.”

Hence, although the regula- tions are quite comprehensive, the tobacco industry has since exploited this loophole by aggressively turning cigarette packs into an advertising medium.

Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco love Thais more than Filipinos

Thais have long been accustomed to seeing graphic health warnings on cigarette packs sold in their country.

What many may not realize is that Marlboro and Mild Seven packs sold in Thailand are made in the Philippines by Philip Morris International (PMI) and JT International (JTI) licensee Fortune Tobacco.

Introducing picture based health warnings on cigarette packages in the Caribbean.

This article about picture based health warnings was originally published in the Alliance Bulletin # 68 (July 3, 2007 p. 5). It is co-signed by Eva Lewis-Fuller (Jamaica), Adrian Randall (Barbados), Beatriz Marcet Champagne (InterAmerican Heart Foundation)
Regulations governing tobacco package warnings in the Caribbean in almost all countries are seriously outdated or non-existent.

Picture by Veronica Reyes Serra

Can cigarette warnings counterbalance effects of smoking scenes in movies?

That's the title of a recent research by Golmier I, Chebat JC, Gelinas-Chebat C that looks very interesting. Unfortunately I have only been able to find a short résumé. I'll teel you more when I have read the whole document.

Graphic Warnings in the New Media Campaign in New South Wales

This is the new TV campaign in New South Wales that airs from 12 April 2007 to end of June. Do you want heart disease or lung cancer? WATCH (MMC).

Also on YouTube.

More about Miguel Garcia Martin, The Face of Chile’s Anti-Tobacco Campaign

Liz Borkowski wrote this very interesting post about Miguel. Good pictures too. The questions that come to my mind are: why did they pick up only one person? only one picture? How did they choose him rather than someone else? How long do they intend to keep this image? Do they plan to change it after a "while"?

Switzerland adopts the EU graphic warnings

The EU graphic warnings will start appearing on the cigarette packs sold in Switzerland in 2008.

Hong Kong's Graphic Warnings

I found the 6 pictures (in chinese and in english) on the excellent site of Physicians for a Smokefree Canada. They also explain what are the new regulations that will start applying on October 2007 .

Bidi Manufacturers Opposed to Graphic Warnings

Their main argument seems to be jobs...

Oudoor Ads About Warnings in Western Australia

Make Smoking History has commenced a new outdoor advertising campaign that draws attention to the graphic health warnings on cigarette packs. Specifically the advertising focuses on two warnings: "Smoking causes blindness" and "Smoking causes mouth and throat cancer".
Pictures are on pdf format:

• Bus Shelter Mouth
• Bus Shelter Eye
• Billboard Mouth
• Billboard Eye

Graphic Warnings in India in June

Pictures of a corpse and mouth cancers will be displayed on cigarette packets in India from June in a bid to shock people into stopping smoking, health officials said on Tuesday.

Other packs will show a toddler with tubes running up his nostrils with the caption "Your smoking kills babies", rather than the milder, pictureless warning "Cigarette smoking is injurious to health" currently displayed.