Topical warning

New graphic health warnings are expected to start to appear on cigarette packs in South Korea next month, according to a story in The Korea Times.
They are due to appear also on heat-not-burn products.
The 12 new images are said to show smokers suffering from ailments such as lung cancer, oral cancer, laryngeal cancer, heart attack and stroke, while carrying warnings about everything from tooth discoloration to premature death.
South Korea first required graphic warnings on tobacco products in 2016 – warnings that take up at least 30 percent of the top of both of the main faces of cigarette packs.
The warnings are supposed to be changed every two years.
The smoking rate among South Korean men aged 19 and older was 20.3 percent in 2018, down from 20.8 percent in 2016, according to government data.
Separate data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) put the smoking rate of South Korean men aged 15 and older at 31 percent in 2015, the highest among 15 OECD countries surveyed. Japan came in second with 30 percent, followed by Italy with 25 percent.