Cigarette packaging in China—not going far enough

Abstract

A WHO report, Tobacco Health Warnings in China: Evidence of Effectiveness and Implications for Action, published on April 8, summarises evidence on the effectiveness of China's written health warnings on tobacco packaging. It concludes that China failed to comply with Article 11 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which defines packaging and labelling of tobacco products. The report calls for policy makers to accelerate the implementation of pictorial warnings in the packaging of tobacco products and public education targets set out in China's National Tobacco Control Plan. China signed the WHO FCTC in 2003 and ratified it in 2005, but did not commit to implement large, visible, rotating warnings covering at least 50% of the primary display areas in the country's principal language within 3 years of ratification. The reason is that China's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, a government body, not only leads tobacco control efforts (including the changes to health warnings on cigarette packaging), but is also responsible for maintaining the country's tobacco industry, which presents a serious conflict of interest. According to the report, the present weakly worded text-only Chinese health warnings are ineffective. Chinese warnings only cover 30% of the bottom of the front and back of the pack, rather than covering at least 50% of the top of both sides as recommended in Article 11 of the FCTC. Furthermore, the font size of Chinese warnings is small and poorly visible against the background. Overall, these do not comply with the WHO FCTC's requirement of being “large, clear and visible”. In addition, China seems to apply double standards since it does adhere to packaging regulations when selling products to Australia, Singapore, the European Union, or even Hong Kong. So why not in mainland China? About 60 countries now require pictorial warnings, so China is falling behind globally. National implementation should require health warnings containing graphic images of diseased organs—which convey a powerful message. Tobacco companies in China should be forced by law to strengthen the health warnings on tobacco product packaging. People in China deserve no less. Tobacco in ChinaThe recent Editorial (April 19, p 1360)1 on cigarette packaging in China not only highlighted China's failure to comply with Article 11 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)'s requirement for health warnings on tobacco packaging, but also correctly pointed out the main cause for this failure, which is the serious conflict of interest presented by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, a government agency responsible for maintaining country's tobacco industry and also responsible for leading national tobacco control efforts. Full-Text PDF