DOH issues graphic warning templates for cigarettes for

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Health (DOH) has come up with 12 templates of graphic warnings that tobacco manufacturers have to print on cigarette packs in compliance with the Graphic Health Warning Law passed three months ago.

The photographs are intended to depict the ill effects of smoking on one’s health. These include images of people suffering from stroke, emphysema, mouth cancer, gangrene, impotence, throat cancer, neck cancer, premature birth and low birth-weight of babies of smoking mothers.

In an administrative order dated Oct. 28, the DOH said the 12 templates of graphic warnings shall be printed simultaneously and these shall be rotated periodically for each brand family and for each variant.

This means that every month, variations of the graphic warnings shall appear in the market with equal frequency and display health warnings and messages on retail packages of cigarettes, the health agency explained.

“Graphic health warning shall be done without the use of any design that will effectively lessen the size of the warning or reduce its clarity and vividness,” the DOH order added.

The law provides that tobacco companies have one year to comply after the release of the templates and retailers have another eight months to dispose of their old stocks that do not have the picture warnings.

Under the law, cigarette packaging should not have features that could modify the warning signs like heat-activated ink or those that provide fluorescent in certain lighting conditions.

“Any ink used in the printing of the graphic health warning shall be of such quality that will not fade, bleed or modify the appearance of the warnings over time,” the DOH order said.

The picture warning shall cover the lower 50 percent of the front and back panels of the packages of cigarettes without the use of any border, frame or any other design that will effectively lessen the size of the warning.