The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) will be hosting a public consultation on “Specification for the labelling of retail packages of tobacco products” on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 from 8:30h to 12:00h at Hotel Tower, Main Street, Georgetown, where a decision will be made on the new and improved Guyana standards for the packaging and labelling of tobacco products in Guyana.
A letter from Guyana Chest Society explains why it is important to have 50% pictorial warnings on both sides of retail packages. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death today – more than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, and this deadly epidemic is steadily shifting to developing countries such as Guyana.
The Guyana Chest Society is currently administering a project that supports the “implementation of a picture-based health warning system on cigarette packages” in Guyana as a cost-effective strategy to reduce the social and economic effects of tobacco use.
Graphics health warnings on cigarette packages have proven their effectiveness as a powerful and cost effective vehicle for communicating the health risk associated with tobacco use to consumers. Countries such as Australia and New Zealand required pictorial warnings (warnings combining picture with a related text) to cover 30% of the front and 90% of the back of cigarette packages. In Brazil, Canada and Singapore more than 55% of smokers changed their opinion about the health consequences of smoking as a result of health warnings. Smokers have also claimed that graphic health warnings increased their motivation to quit and also helped prevent kids from adopting the habit.
The GNBS is the responsible organization that deals with the specifications for the packaging and labelling of tobacco products. However, the present standards are outdated and do not meet the requirements of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to which the Government of Guyana is a signatory.
Under the FCTC the government is obligated to implement various articles that focus on demand reduction and supply strategies. One of such demand reduction strategies is article 11 of the FCTC which mandates the use of health warnings covering at least 50% of the packages on the main display faces. Guyana’s deadline for the implementation of article 11 expired in December 2008.
Working in close proximity with PAHO and the Ministry of Health we are advocating 50% pictorial warnings on the top half of both sides of the packages.
The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) will be hosting a public consultation on he Demerara Tobacco company have expressed their willingness to comply with 50% health warnings on both sides of the top half of the packet after various arguments were put forward in the interest of public health. However they are limiting the front of the packages to a textual warning while the back will have a pictorial one, which has not proven to be effective in various countries around the globe.
