Plea for smoking warning pictures
Source: Xinhua |
December 8, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CAMPAIGNERS aiming for pictorial health warnings to be printed on cigarette packs in China have sent a letter to Industry and Information Minister Miao Wei urging action on the issue.
At a debriefing conference in Beijing yesterday, campaign organizers read a letter written on behalf of more than 1,500 medical and public health experts in 37 cities, calling for regulations to make the warnings compulsory.
Chinese non-governmental organization the ThinkTank Research Center for Health Development ran the campaign from September in more than 30 cities. It included displays of promotional literature, exhibitions and plays, Wu Yiqun, vice director of ThinkTank, said.
The campaign, seen by 612,000 people, was held in universities, hospitals, city government buildings and along streets in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Harbin, said Wu.
Zheng Pinpin, a professor with Shanghai's Fudan University, said according to a survey in which 2,300 Shanghai residents participated, 98 percent believed people can receive effective information from pictures depicting the harm tobacco does. More than 76 percent supported having pictorial warnings printed on cigarette packs, including 50 per cent of the smokers questioned.
This was co-organized by the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and backed by local centers for disease control and health departments.
China ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003, pledging measures to curb tobacco use - including legislation, clear warnings of the harmful effects of tobacco on cigarette packs and a total ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
The treaty took effect in China on January 2006. However, cigarettes sold on the Chinese mainland still lack pictures and specific warnings.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has a leading role in China to implement the FCTC.
"With ugly images of bleeding brains, blackened teeth and rotten lungs, cigarette packs can themselves show the great harm of smoking," said Wu.
At a debriefing conference in Beijing yesterday, campaign organizers read a letter written on behalf of more than 1,500 medical and public health experts in 37 cities, calling for regulations to make the warnings compulsory.
Chinese non-governmental organization the ThinkTank Research Center for Health Development ran the campaign from September in more than 30 cities. It included displays of promotional literature, exhibitions and plays, Wu Yiqun, vice director of ThinkTank, said.
The campaign, seen by 612,000 people, was held in universities, hospitals, city government buildings and along streets in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Harbin, said Wu.
Zheng Pinpin, a professor with Shanghai's Fudan University, said according to a survey in which 2,300 Shanghai residents participated, 98 percent believed people can receive effective information from pictures depicting the harm tobacco does. More than 76 percent supported having pictorial warnings printed on cigarette packs, including 50 per cent of the smokers questioned.
This was co-organized by the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and backed by local centers for disease control and health departments.
China ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003, pledging measures to curb tobacco use - including legislation, clear warnings of the harmful effects of tobacco on cigarette packs and a total ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
The treaty took effect in China on January 2006. However, cigarettes sold on the Chinese mainland still lack pictures and specific warnings.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has a leading role in China to implement the FCTC.
"With ugly images of bleeding brains, blackened teeth and rotten lungs, cigarette packs can themselves show the great harm of smoking," said Wu.
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