A group of civic organizations on Friday urged the government to increase the size of the health warning label on domestic cigarette packaging — currently 35 percent — in response to a new Hong Kong government regulation requiring that the warning label cover 85 percent of a cigarette pack.
“Next month, Hong Kong will increase the size of the warning label to 85 percent of the pack, yet Taiwan has stuck with the 35 percent that was set 10 years ago,” John Tung Foundation chief executive officer Yao Shi-yuan (姚思遠) said.
“The WHO has repeatedly emphasized that printing large health warning labels on cigarette packs is the most cost-efficient and effective health strategy. It is also the regulation that tobacco companies fear most. Almost every nation is working on implementing it,” Yao said.
Foundation tobacco hazard prevention and control division head Lin Ching-li (林清麗) echoed Yao’s concerns, saying that a large warning label and plain packaging with a standardized background color and font prevents tobacco companies from using the outer design of a cigarette pack to advertise their brand.
These measures would encourage the public to quit smoking and prevent teenagers from smoking, Lin said.
Drawing on its experience with promoting the prevention and control of tobacco hazards at elementary and junior-high schools, the Taiwan chapter of the Women’s Federation for World Peace agreed with Lin’s remarks that the cigarette pack is a tool that tobacco companies use to advertise to teenagers.
The rate of tobacco use among adults in Taiwan was 15.3 percent last year, while the rate of tobacco use for people more than 15 years old in Hong Kong is 10.5 percent, chapter secretary-general Lin Shu-hui (林淑慧) said, adding that Taiwan cannot assume that it is doing a good job in terms of tobacco hazard prevention and control.
According to the anti-smoking groups, the size of the warning label on cigarette packs in Hong Kong is to be enlarged from 50 percent to 85 percent on Dec. 21.
Other nations — such as Nepal, India and Thailand — also have label sizes ranging from 85 percent to 90 percent of the pack, Lin Ching-li said.
Taiwan was ranked sixth from last out of 105 nations or regions in terms of labeling size, the groups added.
“The Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health found that a majority of people in Hong Kong support the new regulation. Large images are also the most effective in terms of educating children and teenagers about the detriments of smoking,” University of Hong Kong School of Public Health professor Lam Tai-hing (林大慶) said.
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