China needs more effective warning labels on cigarette packs
Bernhard Schwartländer says China can raise the low public awareness of the harmful effects of smoking by requiring large pictorial health warnings to be displayed on cigarette packs
Nowhere does the global tobacco epidemic loom more ominously than in China, where there are more than 300 million smokers. Nearly 30 per cent of Chinese adults smoke, including 53 per cent of all men. Smoking kills more than 1 million people a year in mainland China - 3,000 every day - a figure that could triple by 2050 if current smoking rates are not reduced.
Tobacco use will have a potentially catastrophic effect on China's society and economy unless swift and decisive action is taken.
Most Chinese smokers are not aware of the extent of harm caused by smoking. Data from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project shows that a majority of Chinese smokers do not know that smoking causes strokes and heart disease - two of the leading causes of death in China - and that fewer than half know smoking can cause impotence, miscarriage and oral cancer. The study showed that smokers in other countries are significantly more aware of smoking-related risks than those in China.
The most effective antidote to this lack of awareness is to have large pictorial warning labels on cigarette packaging. These have been proven to increase smokers' awareness of health risks, and to increase the likelihood that they will reduce their tobacco consumption. Although anti-smoking adverts can be effective as well, even the best mass media campaigns can't reach all smokers all the time. By contrast, health warning labels have tremendous reach and impact.
Chinese smokers consume an average of 15 to 17 cigarettes a day. Exposing them to a health warning each time they reach for a cigarette means they will see a warning up to 6,205 times a year.
Fortunately, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control provides a road map for reducing tobacco use through clear and effective warning labels. The world's first health treaty, it covers 88 per cent of the global population, having been signed and ratified by 177 countries - including China, where it has been in effect since 2006.
But although the treaty and the guidelines for its implementation adopted by the parties clearly spell out how to make warning labels effective, various studies show that, as of the end of last year, text-only cigarette health warnings in China remain ineffective and weak.