Larger pictorial health warning

and Plain Packaging

Tara Singh Bam, Regional Advisor, Tobacco Control
The Union Asia Pacific, Singapore
tsbam@theunion.org

Tobacco Kills
Smoking poses the biggest threat to
public health in the world today

Tobacco emergency
World cigarette consumption (5.9 trillion) by region, 2009

About 800 million

adult men worldwide
smoke cigarette (20% in
high income and 80% in
low income countries)
Nearly 200 million
adult women
worldwide smoke
cigarette
Tobacco kills more than
5 million each year
Source: World Health Organization

Tobacco Is a Risk Factor for 6 of the Worlds 8

Leading Causes of Death

www.tobaccoatlas.org

Hatched areas indicate proportions of deaths related to tobacco use.

Costs to smokers & families

Premature death
Ill health
Health care costs
Costs of second-hand smoke on family health
Costs of purchasing cigarettes

Interventions are needed

What We know:

There are only two ways to reduce tobacco

use:

1. prevent youth from starting to use tobacco

2. encourage and help users to quit

180
parties

The International Responses

Global Response and Country Action

Source: World Health Organization

monitor tobacco use and prevention

policies
protect people from tobacco smoke
offer help to quit tobacco use
warn about the dangers of tobacco
enforce bans on tobacco
advertising, promotion and
sponsorship
raise taxes on tobacco

Pictorial Health Warnings are effective

Educate people on danger
of tobacco use
Motivate smokers/tobacco
users to quit
Convince youth not to
start smoking/tobacco use
Re-convince ex-tobacco
users to remain quitter

Nepal 90%

Sri Lanka 80%

Thailand 85%

Brunei 75%

India 85%

Myanmar 75%

Pakistan 85%

Cambodia 55%

Myanmar- Comparison between text and pictorial health

warning in building public awareness on danger of
tobacco use
Not scary

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%

Scary

85.9%

34.1%

Text
Pictorial
warning
Warning
Adult population
Source- Ministry of Health, Myanmar 2014

Not scary
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%

Scary

88.1%

37.6%

Text
Pictorial
warning
warning
Youth population

Evidences proved that PHWs are effective

In Thailand, nine out of 10 current smokers noticed a
pictorial health warning on cigarette packs, and six in
10 current smokers intended quitting because of
PHW (GATS 2011)
In Australia, PHW and plain packaging was found
effective. Number of adolescents currently smoking
reduced by more than 70 per cent, from 23.5% in
1996 to 6.7% in 2014 (Dessaix A et al Public Health Res Pract. 2016).

Larger pictorial health warnings are effective

PHW made the smokers to reduce cigarettes smoked/day

Indonesia
16

15

14
12

Nepal

27%
11

16

14
12

10

10

11

55%
5

0
Cigarettes smoked
before PHW

Cigarettes smoked
after PHW

0
Cigarettes smoked Cigarettes smoked
before PHW
after PHW

Source: Indonesian Public Health Association, 2015 (N=5355, current smokers 1901)
Action Nepal and Nepal Health Research Council, 2015 ( N = 2250, current smokers - 670)

PLAIN PACKAGING

Tobacco packaging
Tobacco packaging is a mobile
billboard promoting consumption
of tobacco products
Tobacco packaging makes
products more attractive,
advertises and promotes tobacco
consumption
Tobacco packaging distracts from
health warning and deceives
people into thinking that some
products are less harmful than
others
World Health Organization

Plain Packaging
Prohibits the use of
logos, colours, brand
images or promotional
information on
packaging other than
brand names and
products names
displayed in a standard
colour and font style

World Health Organization

Benefits of Plain Packaging

Reducing the attractiveness of
tobacco products
Eliminating the effects of
tobacco packaging as a form of
advertising and promotion
Addressing package design
techniques that may suggests
that some products are less
harmful than others
Increasing the noticeability and
effectiveness of health
warnings
Country: Australia, UK, France, Ireland, The Northern Ireland

World Health Organization

Public Health WINS

UK- Tobacco companies have lost a High Court challenge over
government standardised packaging 19 May 2016
European Union (EU)- Tobacco companies have lost a legal
challenge against EU rules that force them to put graphic
images on cigarette packages warning people of the dangers of
smoking 4 May 2016
India Supreme Court ruling to require 85% pictorial health
warning 4 May 2016
India - The Supreme Court issued notice to the Health Ministry
on a PIL which sought immediate implementation of plain
packaging rules for cigarette and other tobacco products 8
March 2016

Lets join hands together to make effective

implementation of larger pictorial health warning
&
Work for Plain packaging
Pictorial health warning saves lives and saves money