Sri Lanka: Decision to Include Pictorial Health Warnings on Cigarette Packets: Thumbs up from Several Organisations

Source from:  Daily News (lk)  11/26/2012

Several organisations in the forefront of the anti-tobacco campaign in the country, yesterday welcomed the Health Ministry decision to include pictorial health warnings on cigarette packets.

They said this will significantly help make the public aware about the sickness and suffering caused by tobacco use which in turn will contribute to reducing the number of people who begin smoking and increase the number of smokers who quit.

According to the World Health Organisation, hard-hitting anti-tobacco advertisements and graphic pack warnings "especially those that include pictures" reduce the number of children who begin smoking and increase the number of smokers who quit.

The WHO states that studies carried out after the implementation of pictorial package warnings in Brazil, Canada, Singapore and Thailand consistently show that pictorial warnings significantly increase people's awareness of the harms of tobacco use.

The Daily News reported on Friday that the gazette notification in this regard is slated to come into effect from March 2013. When implemented, it would require the industry to include graphic pictorial warning such as deceased lungs, oral cancer, wasted gums, children afflicted due to second-hand smoke etc covering at least 80 percent of the pack. A multinational company filed a case in the Appeal Court against the gazette notification of the Health Ministry. TheCourt decision in this regards is pending.

Meanwhile, Cancer Care Association chairman and medical officer at the National Cancer Institute, Maharagama, Dr Samadi Rajapaksa said pictorial warnings on packs was one of the most influential modes of communicating risks of tobacco use to smokers.

"Graphic pictorial warnings can be very helpful in decreasing tobacco use by increasing public awareness of its dangers," he said.

He described the decision taken by the Ministry and Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena to implement the regulation as timely to strengthen tobacco control initiatives in the country.

Dr Rajapaksa said a decrease in tobacco use will help reduce the number of deaths and diseases related to smoking and also save billions of rupees, which otherwise would have been spent on treating patients afflicted due to illnesses related to tobacco use. "We salute the government, the minister and National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol chairman for taking this decision. A cigarette contains 4,000 harmful substances with 40 of them having a direct impact on cancer. In Sri Lanka, over 40 percent of cancers are directly related to tobacco use," he said.

Meanwhile, Jeewaka Foundation head Manjari Peiris said that as one of the first signatories to the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world's first global public health treaty, Sri Lanka should have included graphic pictorial warnings on packaging by 2009. "All parties to the WHO - FCTC, are required to implement this regulation, which is Article 11 - PHW on cigarette packets. Sri Lanka was ranked as 40th in the implementation of PHW's before the above decision but now has come up to third position (according to the size of PHW 80 percent on the packet). Australia is in the first position (80 percent) , next Uruguay (80 percent) and then Sri Lanka (80 percent)," she said. Enditem