The Health Promotion Administration (HPA) yesterday pushed for increasing the size of health warnings on cigarette packages, citing studies that say it is effective in deterring smoking.
According to the Guidelines for the Implementation of Article 11 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), well-designed health warnings on tobacco product packages are a cost-effective means to increase public awareness of their effects on health and to reduce tobacco consumption.
Evidence shows that the effectiveness of health warnings and messages increases with their size, and that multiple health warnings and messages should appear on rotation, the guidelines said.
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With this in mind, the HPA had proposed an amendment that would increase the size of the health warning to cover at least 85 percent — up from the current 35 percent — of a tobacco package’s back and front, which was approved by the Executive Yuan on Jan. 13. The proposal was forwarded the following day to the Legislative Yuan, where it is awaiting approval.
While Taiwan’s current requirement of 35 percent complies with the minimum 30 percent set by the WHO FCTC’s Article 11, there are 135 countries that set the requirement at more than 35 percent, the HPA said.
“Picture-based warnings convey a more powerful message than a text-only warning and the effectiveness of warnings is known to increase with size,” the HPA cited the Canadian Cancer Society’s “Cigarette Package Health Warnings: International Status Report” from last year.
The report said that 122 countries and territories require warnings to cover at least 50 percent of a tobacco package’s front and back, and 10 that require at least 85 percent, HPA said.
The agency also cited a 2016 Australian study, which found that when the government increased the display area of the health warning labels from 30 percent to 75 percent in front, while maintaining the 90 percent requirement on the back, of cigarette packages, it significantly increased users’ cognitive reaction and intention to quit.
Many smokers are not well-informed about the negative effects of tobacco use, so these warnings can serve as eminders, it said.
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