By the start of next month, Ghana’s tobacco-products suppliers are due to stop distributing products whose packaging does not include graphic health warnings, according to the Ghana News Agency.
The Tobacco Control Measures of the Public Health Act of 2012 (Act 851) and Tobacco Control Regulations of 2016 (LI 2247) mandated the inclusion of graphic health warnings on all tobacco-products packs within 18 months of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) publishing the health-warnings source documents.
The FDA made the source documents available to the tobacco industry in April 2017.
The Vision for Alternative Development (VALD), a non-governmental, anti-tobacco organization, commended the FDA on the implementation of the graphic health warnings.
It said the introduction of pictorial warnings on tobacco products was essential for reaching smokers with low education and literacy, and would help to reduce disparities in health knowledge.
In a statement, VALD said health warnings on tobacco packages constituted an important method to informing and educating the public about the harms of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke.
Graphic warnings for Ghana
