Warnings to Be Placed on Cigarette Packs

In what appears to be part of a wider push to cut down on smoking in the Kingdom, cigarette companies will have to publish pictorial and text warnings that take up 55 percent of each packet by the end of July, according to the Ministry of Health. Tobacco companies that fail to abide by the new regulations will face fines of 10 million riel ($2,500), while wholesale distributors and retailers will also face fines of $500 and $2.50 respectively if caught selling cigarettes that do not contain the new health warnings.

The recent push to cut down on smoking comes from a collaborative effort by the Cambodia Movement for Health (CMH), the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health. CMH executive director Mom Kong said the pictorial warnings are important in cutting down on smoking and to discourage younger generations from picking up the habit. “A pictorial warning plays a very important role in discouraging smokers from continuing to smoke and discouraging the younger generation from trying smoking. More than this, Cambodia is also part of the Convention on Tobacco Control,” he said.

He said now the warnings on cigarette packs only takes up 30 percent of the total space, which is not effective enough to discourage smoking. The new coverage will consist of 50 percent pictorial warning and 5 percent text. Doctor Kong was optimistic about the new coverage helping reduce smoking given the success stories in other Asean countries, though he has yet to conduct any research on the effectiveness of pictorial warnings in Cambodia.

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