The authors, after reviewing 32 studies from 20 countries involving over 800,000 participants, concluded that strengthening pack warning policies should be a “priority” for tobacco control globally. Anti-tobacco campaigners say Bangladesh is loosely enforcing the pictorial pack warning since Mar 19 this year. They included any study about strengthening pack warnings (including, for example, increasing text size), although the bulk of the studies assessed the transition from text warnings to graphic warning images. The key findings were that strengthening pack warnings increases knowledge about the risks of smoking, increases quitline calls, reduces smoking consumption, increases quit attempts, increases short-term smoking cessation and reduces smoking prevalence. “Even adolescents who have not got into the habit yet get aware of the consequences much earlier with the pictorial warnings.

Source: bd News24 September 02, 2016 16:18 UTC