Cigarette packs with health warnings covering 90 per cent of front and back of packs are being marketed in Nepal after a 2014 government directive to increase warning size came into effect in October, public health organisation The Union reported.

The new warnings see an increase in size from 70 per cent to 90 per cent on the front and back surfaces of packs sold in the country. Nepal’s health warnings are now the largest in the world, ahead of Australia where plain packaging law requires health warnings covering 82.5 per cent coverage in the form of 75 per cent on the front and 90 per cent on the back of packs.
“In implementing 90 per cent graphic health warnings, Nepal sets a powerful example to other countries in the region in standing up against tobacco industry interference,” said Dr Ehsan Latif, director of department of tobacco control at The Union.