Picture warnings on Cigarette Packets | Health

13.10.2009 - Oslo

Picture warnings on Cigarette Packets

All cigarette packages will be equipped with picture warnings to remind health risks of tobacco in 2011.

A health warning label on a cigarette pack in Singapore./

All cigarettes will be equipped with picture warnings to remind health risks of tobacco in 2011. Research shows that picture warnings are far more effective than text warnings. They are easier to remember, convey health risks of tobacco use clearly"said State Secretary Ellen Birgitte Pedersen in Health and Care Services in the press conference.

A proposal for warnings with pictures had been circulated for comment earlier this year, and got strong support from almost all the consultation bodies. The regulation will come into force in the beginning of 2010. Cigarettes will be equipped with picture warnings latest by 1 July 2011. Other tobacco products will also have warnings by 1 January 2012.

Picture warnings is expected to reduce the advertising effect of brand name and logo on the current tobacco packages. Although Parliament has passed a ban on visible statement of tobacco, packages still have some advertising effect.