WHO calls for graphic tobacco warnings

The World Health Organization says nearly 6 million people will die of smoking-related causes. Of the world's more than 1 billion tobacco smokers, more than 80% live in low- and middle-income countries and up to half will eventually die of a tobacco-related disease.

The WHO is calling for more countries to pass laws to require large, graphic health warnings, such as pictures of diseased lungs and rotting teeth, on packages of tobacco. Right now, only 19 countries have such legislation on the books.

“People who see that…increase their chances of thinking about thinking, finding reasons to quit, and, in the end, trying to quit,” says Armando Peruga, the Programme Manager at the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative.

“The effectiveness of these images is enhanced when, in addition to the health warnings themselves, you have media campaigns based on the same concept which synergize the effect of these health warnings,” he told Vatican Radio.

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Armando Peruga: