Graphic warnings have minimal effect

The implementation of graphic warnings on cigarette packs, which was enforced in the middle of last year, has had a minimal effect on smokers in Saudi Arabia, according to a story in Arab News quoting a Ministry of Health official.

The story provided no figures to support the idea that the incidence of smoking had not been dented by the introduction of the warnings.

But it said that, according to figures from 2010, out of the country’s 25 million people, six million were smokers, a figure that included 600,000 women and 772,000 teenagers.

Saudi Arabia was said to have the second highest number of female smokers in the Arab Gulf region.