Drilon revives bill on mandatory graphic health warning on cigarette packs

MANILA, Philippines - To further discourage smoking, two lawmakers have revived proposals requiring the placement of graphic health warnings on the packaging of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

Senators Franklin Drilon and Pia Cayetano filed their bills seeking picture-based health warnings on tobacco products, which they said should be alongside the recently enacted sin tax amendments law.

Drilon, who co-sponsored a similar bill in the 15th Congress, said requiring tobacco companies to place picture-based health warnings on cigarette packages would boost the government’s campaign against smoking.

“Studies indicate that textual health warnings are not effective. While present smokers understand that tobacco use is harmful, studies show that most are not completely aware of its true risk,” Drilon said.

He said other studies have shown that the use of graphic images on cigarette packaging has a wider reach than mere text warnings, as images produce effects not just on the smoker, but on the people around.

“It has also been apparent that these images have significant effect on those who have difficulty reading and writing,” he added.

Drilon said other countries that are implementing picture-based health warnings have recorded a significant reduction in the number of smokers.

Senate Bill 499, or the proposed Picture-Based Health Warning Act of 2013, requires that the graphic be printed on at least 60 percent of the principal display surfaces of any tobacco package and shall be located at the upper portion of the cigarette pack.

The bill also mandates that no cigarette packs or other tobacco product packages shall contain information that may imply that one variant or brand is safer than the other.

A fine ranging from P1 million to P20 million and/or imprisonment of not more than five years await violators.

For her part, Cayetano filed Senate Bill 27, her version of the picture-based health warning bill, which she said would complement the Sin Tax Reform Act.

She said higher excise tax on tobacco is not enough to discourage more smokers to quit.

“Smokers tend to shift to lower-priced brands to be able to sustain the habit,” she said.

Cayetano, chair of the Senate committee on health and demography, lamented that the bill she introduced in the 14th and 15th Congress was killed due to strong opposition from the tobacco industry.

Meanwhile, a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that smoking kills around six million people annually despite the “proven cost-effective means to combat this deadly epidemic.”

The WHO’s Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2013 showed that tobacco causes more than half a trillion dollars of economic damage every year and would kill “as many as one billion people this century” if the WHO-initiated Framework on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is not implemented rapidly.

“Although tobacco use continues to be the leading global cause of preventable death, there are proven, cost-effective means to combat this deadly epidemic,” WHO said.      â€“ With Sheila Crisostomo