Creepy warning creep
Thailand is aiming to become the country with the largest cigarette-pack health warnings, according to a story in The Nation.
At present, its warnings are said to take up 55 per cent of a pack’s surface area, but that is set to rise to 85 per cent, the country’s Public Health Minister, Pradit Sinthawanarong, said.
After a meeting with the national tobacco control board, Pradit said the board had agreed to issue a ministerial declaration increasing the size of the warnings.
The declaration will come into effect 180 days after publication in the Royal Gazette.
The warnings will include 10 pictures depicting laryngeal cancer, heart failure, stroke, oral cancer, sexual dysfunction, lung cancer, emphysema and chronic bad breath.
Warnings were said to cover 82.5 per cent of the pack in Australia, 80 per cent in Uruguay and Sri Lanka, and 75 per cent in Brunei and Canada.