Tobacco packaging warning messages

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Tobacco package warning messages are warning messages that appear on the packaging of cigarettes and other tobacco products concerning their health effects. They have been implemented in an effort to enhance the public's awareness of the harmful effects of smoking. In general, warnings used in different countries try to emphasize the same messages. Warnings for some countries are listed below. Such warnings have been required in tobacco advertising for many years, with the earliest mandatory warning labels implemented in the United States in 1966.^[1] Implementing tobacco warning labels has been strongly opposed by the tobacco industry, most notably in Australia, following the implementation of plain packaging laws.

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, adopted in 2003, requires such warning messages to promote awareness against smoking.^[2]

A 2009 review summarises that there is "clear evidence that tobacco package health warnings increase consumers' knowledge about the health consequences of tobacco use". The warning messages "contribute to changing consumers' attitudes towards tobacco use as well as changing consumers' behaviour".^[3]

At the same time, such warning labels have been subject to criticism.^[4][5] 2007 meta-analyses indicated that communications emphasizing the severity of a threat are less effective than communications focusing on susceptibility^[6] and that warning labels may have no effect among smokers who are not confident that they can quit, which lead the authors to recommend exploring different, potentially more effective methods of behaviour change.^[7]

In many countries, a variety of warnings with graphic, disturbing images of tobacco-related harms (including hematuria and diabetes) are placed prominently on cigarette packages.