Unanimous nod for pictorial warnings on cigarettes

Thursday, 20 February 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Ashwin Hemmathagama Our Lobby Correspondent Parliament yesterday unanimously passed regulations to cover 80% of cigarette packets and other tobacco products with pictorial warnings to discourage usage. According to the new regulations approved by Parliament, pictorial warnings illustrating cancer patients, children in intensive care, and a few dead bodies caused by cancer caused by smoking will be printed on the top surface area covering not less than 80% on both front and the back sides of every cigarette packet, package or carton. Moving the motion, Minister of Health Maithripala Sirisena stated that Sri Lanka is unable to shoulder the high cost of treating patients with non-communicable diseases caused due to tobacco products. “The tax income received from tobacco products are less than what Government spend on these patients. Annually 20,000 Sri Lankans die due to tobacco related issues. Sri Lanka entered into a global pact in 2005 with the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent tobacco use. Although we were unable to establish the regulations in 2008 as expected, the regulations are now enforced,” said Minister Sirisena. Apart from these pictorial warnings, Government expects each packet, package, carton or label to mention the percentage of nicotine and tar found in each cigarette, the year of production, and the date of expiry. Not exempting the tobacco and cigarette importers, the new warnings are to be pasted on imported products in the form of a sticker, which complies with the regulations. These new regulations made by the Minister of Health under Section 30 read with Section 34 of the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol Authority Act No. 27 of 2006 were published in the Gazette Extraordinary No. 1170/15 of 8 August 2012, Gazette Extraordinary No. 1783/16 of 8 November 2012, and Gazette Extraordinary No. 1797/22 of 15 February 2013.

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