Graphic warnings unveiled in Philippines

The Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH) has published 12 templates for the graphic health warnings set to be included on tobacco packs, according to stories in the Daily Inquirer and the Sun-Star.

The 12 warnings are to be rotated so that each variant of every brand displays them all with approximately equal frequency during a period of 24 months.

They include images of or metaphors for people suffering from the effects of stroke, emphysema, mouth cancer, gangrene, impotence, throat cancer, neck cancer and premature births, and babies with low birth-weight.

With the release of the templates, tobacco manufacturers have 12 months to comply with the health-warning law.

On top of that, retailers will be given a further eight months to exhaust their stocks of tobacco products not bearing the new picture warnings.