GUWAHATI, July 10 - Terming the current health warning of 40 per cent size on one side of tobacco packages as �weak and ineffective,� which do not communicate the desired message to users and non-users, the Dr B Borooah Cancer Institute (BBCI) has urged the State government to increase the size of the pictorial warnings on the packages of tobacco products.
�Research shows that effective warning labels increase knowledge about risks associated with smoking and can influence future decisions about smoking. Large and graphic warning labels can motivate smokers to quit, discourage non-smokers from starting, and keep ex-smokers from starting again,� Dr AC Kataki, Director, BBCI, told The Assam Tribune.
Anti-tobacco campaigners believe that if pictorial warnings can create awareness of all the harmful effects of tobacco consumption even among a large chunk of the educated population, the benefits will be tremendously high in the case of poor and illiterate people.
