Advocates say Nigeria should consider photo health warnings on cigarettes; WHO honors Malaysia for tobacco regulation

In honor of 2009 World No Tobacco Day Nigerian Heart Foundation President Oluyomi Adeyemi-Wilson spoke at an event in Lagos, Nigeria, on Sunday where he called for members of the National Assembly to pass a new bill requiring that cigarette manufacturers print pictorial and graphical health warnings on the packages of cigarettes - an effort supported by the WHO, Vanguard/allAfrica.com reports.

Dapo Rotifa, the chairman of the organizing committee for the event, addressed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control guidelines, adopted in 2008, that require health warnings to appear on the front and back of packaging. Despite these guidelines, Rotifa said most tobacco products fail to provide consumers with health warnings (Obinna, Vanguard/allAfrica.com, 6/2).

In related news, the New Strait Times reports that Malaysia has received praise from the WHO for its implementation of anti-smoking measures, including the introduction of graphic health warnings on cigarette packages. The WHO honored the work of Health Ministry Deputy Director-General Datuk Ramlee Rahmat on World No Tobacco Day for his leadership that brought about the "Control of Tobacco Product Regulation that requires the mandatory display of six sets of pictorial health warnings" (Cruez, New Strait Times, 6/2).