Graphic health warnings on cigar packs sought anew

MANILA, Philippines - An anti-tobacco group is again pushing for graphic health warnings on cigarette packs.

Following the passage of the Sin Tax Reform Bill at the House of Representatives, lawyer Irene Reyes, Health Justice managing director, yesterday said the fight for a “smoke-free Philippines” does not end.

They intend to work now for the implementation of the Department of Health’s (DOH) Administrative Order No. 2010-0013 requiring graphic health warning – or pictures depicting the ill-effects of smoking – to be printed on cigarette packs, she added.

The order was issued in 2010 but has not been implemented due to the lawsuits that cigarette companies have filed in court.

Reyes said many countries have already adopted the graphic warning strategy, but anti-tobacco advocates are still struggling to get it started in the Philippines.

“It’s tragic how other countries are breaking ground with plain packaging while here in the Philippines, we can’t even implement picture warnings in cigarette packs,” she said.

“We’re still stuck with text warnings that are ineffective, especially for children, the youth and the illiterate.”

Reyes cited Australia where a law had even been passed mandating graphic warning and plain cigarette packaging.

The Tobacco Plan Packaging Act states that starting Dec. 12, 2012, cigarettes to be sold in Australia shall be in plain brown packaging with graphic health warnings occupying 75 percent of the packs.

The statement showed the legislation was challenged before the Australian High Court by cigarette manufacturers Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Imperial, and Japan Tobacco.

“This is predictable,” she said. “Worldwide, whenever any progress is made for public health and saving lives, these tobacco companies sue government just like they did here.”

Reyes has asked the Aquino administration to take a stand on graphic health warning to minimize tobacco-related illnesses and deaths.

“The government should prioritize saving lives in their agenda,” she said.

“With 240 Filipinos dying every day due to tobacco-related causes, we can’t overstate its urgency. The Philippines is obliged by its ratification of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to place effective warnings on cigarette packs.”

The graphic health warning is provided for in Article 11 of the World Health Organization (WHO)-initiated Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a public health treaty against cigarettes. It was signed by 170 countries including the Philippines.

WHO gave assurance that “pictorial health warnings on tobacco packages are a cost-effective means to increase public awareness about the dangers of tobacco use.”

The treaty recommends that countries should mandate “full color pictures or pictograms” in packaging and labeling of cigarettes to scare off the public from smoking.