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Graphic Health Warnings on Tobacco Products are not Obligatory

Published on August 8, 2008 2:46 AM

World Health Organization said that graphic health warnings on tobacco products are not obligatory. Yet a growing number of countries plan to introduce such warnings on the premise that by doing so, more smokers will be encouraged to quit than would be the case if existing text warnings were retained. Scientists sustained that a picture can says more than a thousand words.

According to a recent news article Canada was the first country in the world to introduce graphic warnings back in 2001 and the results of the poll are seen by Graphic health warnings fail in their purpose because they provoke outright denial, rather than fear, of the consequences of smoking. Also, from a harm reduction perspective, graphic health warnings do not control smokers towards forms of tobacco or nicotine products such as smokeless tobacco, which are now widely considered to be much safer than cigarettes.

Anti-smoking researchers reported that health warnings could be used on the cigarettes packs for to informing consumers with less information about the risk of smoking.

For example, packs of cigarettes could perhaps carry a health warning that simply says "Much safer nicotine-containing tobacco and non-tobacco products are available".

But nicotine replacement products might carry a health warning that says "Whilst this nicotine-containing product is safer than tobacco products, no product that contains nicotine is totally safe".