Singapore’s Health Promotion Board (HPB) in partnership with the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) will introduce health warning labels on outer packaging of tobacco products effective March 2013.
Under the new measure, which is part of the amendments made in 2010 to the renamed Tobacco Act, Singapore will also ban misleading labeling such as 'mild, 'lights' or 'low tar' on tobacco products.
HPB said that a new set of graphic health warnings and extension of health warning labels to the outer packaging such as carton packaging will replace the existing ones.
The maximum tar and nicotine limits will be lowered and current labels indicating tar and nicotine yield levels on cigarette packaging will be replaced with new ones that inform smokers of chemicals other than tar and nicotine in a cigarette. Cigarillos will be required to be sold in packs of 20 instead of the current ten.
HPB CEO Ang Hak Seng said there is no evidence that light and mild cigarettes are any less harmful, yet many smokers, who want to quit the habit but found it challenging, tend to switch to cigarettes with these descriptors as they think they are less harmful.
According to the Board, the ban on misleading labeling will affect about a quarter of the cigarette brands currently sold in Singapore.
Singapore first implemented a new set of graphic health warnings on cigarette packs in August 2004, which are regularly rotated to maintain the effectiveness of the images.
