A couple of days ahead of the ‘World No Tobacco Day’ on Sunday, the World Health Organization in Belgium has pushed for the governments’ contribution to the worldwide crusade against tobacco by ensuring that tobacco product packages carry the mandatory pictorial warnings conveying the adverse effects of its use. 

The UN health agency said in its Friday statement that tobacco packages should have pictures like those of decaying lungs, miscarried fetuses and bleeding brains, so as to put across to the general public the disastrous consequences related to tobacco use.

Reiterating the need for pictorial warnings, WHO Assistant Director General, Dr. Ala Alwan, said: “Health warnings on tobacco packages are a simple, cheap and effective strategy that can vastly reduce tobacco use and save lives. But they only work if they communicate the risk. Warnings that include images of the harm that tobacco causes are particularly effective at communicating risk and motivating behavioral changes.”

The WHO has called for the pictorial warnings to be displayed on all main sides of the pack, in such a way that they would be clearly seen when the pack is put on view at retail. The agency further said that studies in Canada, Brazil, Singapore and Thailand indicate “remarkably consistent” results of the affirmative impact of pictorial and textual warnings on tobacco product packages.