10 printed pictures with emergency helpline 1600

“It’s D-day” announced the Ministry of Public Health in 2009, according to the 2009 Act of cigarette control. From the 29th Of March, 2010, cigarette makers and importers are enforced by law to print the ten pictures of health warnings of tobacco consumption.

Thailand is the fourth country in the world to have pictorial warnings on tobacco packages, and 5 countries, e.g., Brunei, Malaysia, have asked for Thailand’s prototype.

Mrs. Punsiri Kullanartsiri, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Public health, has signaled Thai people to reduce or to give up cigarette smoking, to curb illnesses from inhaling smokes which contain as many as 4,000 types of harmful substances. Tobacco consumption has caused deaths from lung cancer, including chronic pulmonary diseases which cause agonizing asthmatic symptoms in sufferers. There have been 200,000 Thai people suffering from these diseases.

All producer companies or importers of all kinds of cigarettes in Thailand must have all the 10 pictorial warnings printed in 4 colors on all cigarette packages. That is in an area of 55% of both the back and front of every package.

This method of health warning is regarded as the most direct and economical campaign to give information to both smokers and non-smokers. The World Health Organization accepts this method as consistent in giving information to smokers who have the information every time they pick up their cigarette packets, and will decide whether to smoke or to quit smoking once and for all.

The 10 pictorial warnings of death caused by: 1) cardiac arrest, 2) pulmonary congestion, 3) lung cancer, 4) 10 types of cancer related to cigarette smoke, 5) cancer of the larynx, 6) cerebral-vascular constriction, 7) mouth cancer, 8) passive smoking, 9) smoking causing halitosis and, 10) foot gangrene. These ten warning pictures might have to be modified every two years to avoid monotony.

Moreover, enforcement of these pictorial warnings can also control contraband products or illegal import of cigarettes.

Source: Matichon Newspaper.