What action is needed

Placing pictorial warnings on all tobacco products is an appropriate and highly cost-effective way to warn consumers about the risks of tobacco and to reduce consumption.

Call to policy-makers

• Promote your country’s accession to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, whose Article 11 guidelines lay out the elements of effective tobacco health warnings. More than 160 countries are already Parties to this international treaty.
• Use the MPOWER package –the “W”, which stands for “Warn about the dangers of tobacco” – to counter the tobacco epidemic and to help countries meet their commitments under the WHO Framework Convention.
• Require by law that all tobacco products display large pictorial warnings about the harm caused by tobacco.
• Build on the experiences of other countries to craft the most effective warnings and use them for the greatest possible impact.
• Base your decisions on impartial scientific evidence, not on the claims of the tobacco industry. Tobacco companies oppose strong health warnings, particularly those with pictures. Their arguments are false.

Call to civil society and nongovernmental organizations

• Advocate picture-based warnings on all tobacco products. Campaign for and help to develop and implement laws that require such warnings on tobacco products.
• Act as a watchdog to monitor tobacco-industry packaging strategies and compliance with statutory warnings.
• Evaluate and share information about the effectiveness of pictorial warnings.

Call to the public

• Demand to know the truth – the whole truth – about the dangers of tobacco use and exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.
• Let everyone know that you support pictorial warnings.