28 May 2009
WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY 2009
Pictorial health warnings save lives
The World Health Organization (WHO) is celebrating this year’s World No Tobacco Day with the theme ‘pictorial health warnings’ on the packaging and labeling of tobacco products.
Health warnings on packets of cigarettes are a powerful and inexpensive way to show pictorially the harmful effects of tobacco use. Health warnings that include images of the harmful effects of tobacco can be very powerful in demotivating smokers.
Pictures convey a clear and instant message, even to those who cannot read. Although people agree that tobacco use is harmful, they are often unaware of how tobacco actually harms them.
Pictorial warnings on tobacco products are also helpful in reducing the attractiveness of tobacco packaging. Tobacco companies spend millions of dollars to make tobacco products attractive to the public. They use packaging as an important tool to appeal to, and attract, new customers, while distracting consumers from the harsh reality of how tobacco destroys health.
On the occasion of the 2009 World No Tobacco Day, Dr Hussein A. Gezairy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, identifies the challenges ahead: “The tobacco industry is facing bans on tobacco promotion and they are using tobacco packaging to attract new smokers, particularly youth and women. We should take all necessary action to stop that”.
A total of 23 countries in the world now include pictorial health warnings, with messages reaching more than 700 million people. In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, pictorial health warnings on the packaging of tobacco products are found in Egypt, Jordan, Islamic Republic of Iran and Djibouti.
The Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recently adopted guidelines for the packaging and labelling of tobacco products which recommended large graphic health warnings to be displayed on at least 50% of the principal display area of any tobacco product’s packaging. More than 160 countries are now Party to the Convention and legally bound to implement its measures, including pictorial health warnings.
Today we call upon all countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region to adopt pictorial health warnings not only for cigarettes but for all tobacco products including shisha.
