Warnings should appear on all tobacco products

Warnings should be required on all products to give users access to the information and the message that all tobacco products cause harm.

Health warnings have most commonly been required on manufactured cigarette packages. All tobacco products carry health risks, however, and cigarettes are not the most widely used tobacco product in many countries.

Implementation of health warnings may present particular challenges for locally or indigenously produced products, such as roll-your-own”cigarettes, bidis, cheroots, kreteks and gutkha. Authorities should be creative in exploring solutions to ensure that warnings reach users of these products.

Options to help meet these challenges include:

• requiring warnings on individual products, especially if products are sold in loose packaging or in bundles without outer packaging;
• requiring minimum package sizes, if packages are too small to implement the required warnings practicably;
• allowing warnings to be printed on permanent or nonremovable stickers applied to the product or its packaging, if it is impractical to print the warning directly on the product or packaging;
• requiring pictorial warning signs at all places where tobacco products are sold, and on any permitted advertising or promotion for tobacco products.