Experts call for graphic warnings on cigarette packs

The China Representative Office of World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday revealed the theme of World No Tobacco Day 2016: "Get ready for plain packaging."

Plain packaging means no brands, logos or advertising on cigarette packs. Packs will be a standard color, and brands will be printed in uniform typeface. Graphic warnings will also be featured.

Reducing the attractiveness of tobacco products, restricting the use of packaging as advertising, limiting misleading packaging and labeling, and increasing the effectiveness of health warnings, will all help to reduce smoking, according to the WHO.

Angela Pratta, who leads the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative in China, said graphic warnings influence consumers' emotional response more effectively than health warnings and increase their motivation to quit.

Beijing's Chaoyang District Center for Disease Control Prevention released a report on public awareness of graphic warnings on Thursday.

The investigation showed low awareness. Sixty-eight percent of the respondents have not seen cigarette packs with graphic warnings, said Wang Zhaonan, a doctor at the center.

More than 90 percent of respondents believed that the cigarette packs with graphic warnings could directly show the harmful effect of tobacco, according to the investigation.

Only 6 percent of teenage respondents knew the harmful effects of tobacco and 72 percent of students said they would not attempt to smoke if packs had graphic warnings. Endi