Say no to smoking and alcohol

“Tobacco health warnings”— the theme for this year’s No Tobacco Day on March 31 st , reinforces the need to step up graphic warnings on tobacco packages to discourage consumers from using tobacco in any form—smoking cigars, cigarettes, water pipes, hookah and beedis and the non smoking version such as chewing tobacco or sniffing powdered tobacco . Several international studies have proved that effective health warnings, especially graphic details of the health hazards of tobacco can motivate users to quit using tobacco and discourage first timers from getting into the habit. More and more countries are beginning to follow the guidelines drafted in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and putting up a spirited fight to beat the tobacco industry as it tries to lure more hapless people into tobacco addiction. Tobacco Trouble Unable to plug tobacco at the supply level, health organizations all over the world issue repeated warnings about the devastating effects of tobacco o...

GENEVA (AFP) — Pictures of rotting lungs, miscarried foetuses and bleeding brains should be put on all tobacco packages as they are effective in preventing tobacco use, the World Health Organisation said Friday. "Today, WHO urged governments to require that all tobacco packages include pictorial warnings to show the sickness and suffering caused by tobacco use," said the UN health agency in a statement. Graphic warnings showing illnesses caused by tobacco have been put on cigarette packagings in countries such as Brazil, Canada, Singapore and Thailand. Studies have indicated that they help smokers to quit, according to the UN health agency, which launched its own explicit poster campaign for World No Tobacco Day on May 31. "Effective health warnings, especially those that include pictures, have been proven to motivate users to quit and to reduce the appeal of tobacco for those who are not yet addicted," said the WHO. However, the WHO noted that nine out of 10 people...