Complaints hotline on tobacco products without pictorial warning
By Ayman Adly
Staff Reporter
The public can report on a hotline tobacco and tobacco products found without a pictorial health warning in Qatar after August 9 but authorities have granted a three-month grace period to traders to exhaust the existing stock, Gulf Times has learnt.
All tobacco products that do not carry a standard visual as well as a written health warning in both Arabic and English will be banned from entering Qatar starting from Thursday, according to Dr Mohamed Saif al-Kuwari, assistant undersecretary for laboratories and standardisation affairs. The initiative will come into effect in all GCC countries simultaneously.
Dr al-Kuwari said that all related companies had been notified and any violation would be dealt with according to the applicable rules of the country. He explained that a set of warning images and phrases had been approved and manufactures have to use them all in a sequence in consecutive batches of their production.
“We have adopted more than one image for variation. If it were one and the same image, people would get used to it and it gets neglected and eventually goes unheeded,” he said.
The Supreme Council of Health will enforce the decision and ensure its implementation.
Meanwhile, a three-month grace period will be given to dispose of the existing products in the country that do not comply with the new standards. After the passage of this period any packet of tobacco that does not have the standard warning would be deemed a violation. The violating packets would be instantly confiscated and the person in possession would be legally prosecuted.
“Consumers could also report about violations through a hotline that would be allocated for this. Also, inspectors would have the legal power to deal with any related violations,” pointed out Dr al-Kuwari.
Currently all tobacco products have a written health warning clearly indicating the damaging and some times fatal consequences of smoking on health.
Tobacco smoking is a major cause of premature death. The use of tobacco kills an estimated 5.4mn people a year and accounts for 1 in 10 adult deaths universally, as indicated by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
A visual warning of the health damages on packets of tobacco products may not persuade established smokers to quit but it could discourage potential smokers, a considerable number of people have indicated.
According to David Hammond, Department of Health Studies and Gerontology, University of Waterloo, Canada, health warnings are effective.
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