By IANS,
New Delhi : Countries are making significant progress in implementing prominent graphic warnings on tobacco packages to reduce tobacco use, a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
According to a statement by the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), one billion people in the world are now protected by laws that require pictorial warnings on tobacco packets.
The report was released Thursday.
“The report finds that more than one billion people in 19 countries are now protected by laws requiring graphic health warnings, up from 547 million people in 16 countries in 2008,” VHAI said in a statement.
The report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2011, is the third report the WHO has issued assessing global progress against the global tobacco epidemic.
“But the report also contains the troubling news that a number countries are still not doing enough to reverse the tide of a tobacco epidemic that will otherwise kill one billion people worldwide,” the statement said.