The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday urged countries to boost the use of graphic health warnings on cigarette packs on its release of its third "Report on the global tobacco epidemic".

The report, which is the third in a series of WHO reports on the status of global tobacco control policy implementation, examines in detail the two primary strategies to provide health warnings – labels on tobacco product packaging and anti-tobacco mass media campaigns.
WHO Assistant Director-General for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, Dr Ala Alwan said: “We are pleased that more and more people are being adequately warned about the dangers of tobacco use. At the same time, we can’t be satisfied that the majority of countries are doing nothing or not enough. We urge all countries to follow the best-practices for reducing tobacco consumption and to become Parties to, and fully implement, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.”
Requiring large, graphic health warnings is among the six demand-reduction measures recommended by WHO.
The report says that more than one billion people in 19 countries are now covered by laws requiring large, graphic health warnings on packages of tobacco, nearly double the number of two years ago, when only about 547 million people were covered in 16 countries. (pi)