Indonesia: Pictorial Warnings on Cigarette Packs Start June 24

Source from:  The Jakarta Post 07/03/2014

Cigarette manufacturers will be required to put pictorial warnings on the dangers of smoking on the front and back of cigarette packets starting June 24.

The inclusion of pictorial health warnings on cigarette packets is stipulated in Government Regulation (PP) No.109/2012 on tobacco control.

Southeast Asia Initiative on Tobacco Tax's (SITT) Indonesia pack coordinator, Widyastuti Soerojo, said the Health Ministry had prepared five pictorial warnings that producers must display on their cigarette packets.

She said the pictorial warnings depicted, among other things, oral and lung cancer and would hopefully make people aware of the negative effects of tobacco and deter them from smoking.

"Hopefully, this will also be effective in reducing the number of smokers in Indonesia, which has continued to increase," Widyastuti said as quoted by tempo.co.

She said that according to the 2012 regulation, all cigarette products marketed in Indonesia must include both written and graphic warnings on the danger of smoking.

Indonesia will be the fifth ASEAN member country, after Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei, to require pictorial warnings on tobacco packaging. Enditem