Health warnings on the packaging of all tobacco products are guaranteed to reach all users. Since the 1960s, warning labels on cigarette packs have been used as a way to communicate risks associated with smoking and encouragement to quit. Health warnings on cigarette packs are now required in most countries of the world, and laws are steadily increasing the required size of the warning, strengthening the content, and enhancing the graphic design.

In one of its strongest provisions, Article 11 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC ) compels signatories, within three years of ratification, to require tobacco product health warnings that cover at least 30 percent, and preferably 50 percent, of the visible area on a cigarette pack. Warnings should be extended to all forms of smoking and smokeless tobacco.

Efforts to correct decades of consumer misperceptions about light cigarettes must extend beyond simply removing “light” and “mild” brand descriptors.

Plain packaging, displaying only the brand name and the health warning with no use of color, logo, or promotional graphic design, increases both prominence and credibility of health warnings. Plain packaging requirements are consistent with restrictions on tobacco advertising because promotional packaging is one of the industry’s most important advertising tools.

Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
Protect people from tobacco smoke
Offer help to quit tobacco use
Warn about the dangers of tobacco
Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Raise taxes on tobacco

Building on the first-ever global public health treaty - the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008 issued a comprehensive country-level report on the global tobacco epidemic. This report provides data from 179 countries covering 99% of the world’s population and sets baselines for implementation and enforcement of the six evidence-based and cost-effective policies of the WHO MPOWER strategy. Currently only 5% of the world’s population is fully protected by any one of the MPOWER interventions and no country implements and enforces all of them. By taking action to implement MPOWER, the leaders of governments and civil society can create the necessary environment to protect children from tobacco, help people quit tobacco use and save millions of lives a year.

The final version of the online Tobacco Atlas will have information on MPOWER steps related to the issues portrayed on each map.