It is already well-known that a significant wave of changes will launch on April 2012 in China, it will include larger graphic warnings written in Mandarin.

According to the report, the font size of cigarettes graphic warnings will be doubled to 4 mm, with a great contrast between the wording and background. The language of the warnings will be written only in Mandarin, eliminating the use of English on the cigarette packaging. After that, the Administration will confirm and select members for the advisory council, which should finish writing tobacco guidelines by Oct 31, 2011. Also the council will have to ratify and submit packaging designs for endorsement before Nov 30, 2011.

Effectual from April 1 next year, tobacco products sold in China must have the new packaging warning. As regards imported smoking products, the Administration will inform suppliers and discuss all requirements during the contractual stages. However tobacco analysts declared that the given improvement is just marginal, as the content of the warning doesn’t have a great effect. The packages should inform smokers that tobacco leads to lung cancer, hear diseases and premature aging, they said. “There no sense in creating the font size bigger if the warning is inefficient,” stated Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the Beijing-based ThinkTank Research Center for Health Development.

The experts also underlined the conflict of interests as China’s tobacco supervisory authority is connected to its commercial profit arm. The China National tobacco Corporation, the county’s biggest cigarette producer, is a subsidiary of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration. On June 8, 2011 the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted a declaration prompting Asia-Pacific countries to raise the use of graphic health labels on cigarette packages.

Dr. Shin Young-soo, WHO’s Regional Director declared in the interview that people have a basic right to any information and data about the dangerous effects of tobacco, and countries are obliged to assure them.

All 173 members of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) have complied to the convention’s guidelines, which include placing health warnings on cigarette packages – in particular pictures of diseases organs or bigger written warnings. For instance on October 11, 2005, the FCTC introduced a treaty, which demands that all health warnings cover at least a third of the package surface. However, the WHO report demonstrates that only 19 countries in the world have introduced these messages in practice, as for instance Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) has revealed that in 2010, about 301 million of people in China were heavy smokers, constituting approximately 28.1% of adults.

By Steve Shepherd, Staff Writer. Copyright © 2011 Cigarette-Store.org. All rights reserved.