Pictorial warnings on cigarette packs have impacted positively -WHO

Rasika Somarathna

The World Health Organization (WHO) while welcoming Sri Lanka’s initiative to include pictorial health warnings on tobacco packaging said studies carried out in countries where such regulations have been implemented show, this has helped increase public awareness on the serious health risks of tobacco use and reduces consumption.

WHO officials said large pictorial health warnings on packs is similar to a mass media campaign, virtually guaranteed to be seen by almost all smokers and many potential smokers.

A pack-a-day smokers see such warnings at least 7,300 times annually and they can impact on all segments of society equally.

Citing results of studies in several countries where such initiatives have taken place, officials of the WHO office in Sri Lanka said in Brazil, more than half of its smokers( 54 percent) said they changed their opinion on the health consequences of smoking and later 67 percent said they wanted to quit.

In Singapore, more than two thirds of smokers (71 percent) said they knew more about the health effects of smoking and 28 percent said they smoked fewer cigarettes.

In Thailand, four out of five young people aged 13 -17 (81 percent) and more than half of adult smokers thought more about the health impact of smoking and 44 percent said they may quit over the next month.

In Canada, nearly half of smokers (44 percent) said they had increased motivation to quit.

In Sri Lanka, the Health Ministry issued a gazette notification directing the industry to include pictorial warnings covering 80 percent of the pack.