Global Progress in Graphic Cigarette Warnings

The World Health Organization has declared the tobacco epidemic to be one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, responsible for the deaths of more than 7 million people from direct tobacco use and a further 1.3 million from second-hand smoke inhalation each year. World No Tobacco Day 2024 takes place on May 31 and this year the theme is “Protecting children from tobacco industry interference.”

One measure against smoking taken by an increasing number of countries and governments around the world is to make it a requirement for graphic warning labels to be used as a deterrent on cigarette packages. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, Canada was the first country to demand that cigarette packages include such images, back in 2001. Over the following two decades, this figure has climbed to include 138 countries and territories.

According to the charity’s report on the topic, Timor-Leste and Turkey are the two countries that require the biggest warnings to be shown on their cigarette packages, where at least 85 percent of the front of each cigarette package and 100 percent of the back of each needs to be covered in such a label. India also scores highly on the international comparison, tied with Hong Kong and Thailand in ninth position, where it is mandatory that at least 85 percent of the package is covered by warning images. By contrast, the United States ranks 173 in the world, tied in last place with Tuvalu.

Progress has been made around in terms of countries increasing the size of their warning labels and with countries starting to implement plain packaging. The use of plain packaging is intended to curb the tobacco industry’s use of the package as a promotional vehicle and in doing so to try and reduce the appeal of tobacco products.