Singapore To Ban Misleading Descriptions On Tobacco Packaging Effective March 1

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah SINGAPORE, Feb 23 (Bernama) -- Singapore's Health Promotion Board (HPB), in partnership with the Health Sciences Authority (HSA), will ban misleading descriptions on tobacco packaging effective March 1. The move is being taken following amendments to the republic's Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act for more effective tobacco control measures. Also to be implemented is a new set of graphic health warnings and extension of graphic health warning labels to the outer packaging (i.e. carton packaging) and lowering the maximum tar and nicotine limits as well as replacing the requirement to print tar and nicotine yield levels with a new health information requirement. Other measures include requiring cigarettes to be sold in packs of 20 instead of the current 10. During the 2010 amendments to the Smoking (Control of Advertisements and Sale of Tobacco) Act, it was announced that Singapore will be extending health warning labelling to the outside packaging of tobacco products, and prohibiting misleading labelling on tobacco products, such as mild, lights or low tar. The Act was also renamed the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act. A briefing session was held this morning to communicate the amendments to the tobacco industry. The tobacco industry has been given until March 1, 2013 to implement these changes. Explaining the move here today, HPB chief executive officer, Ang Hak Seng said: “Singapore is a signatory of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). "One of the obligations of being a signatory is the requirement to ensure that tobacco product packaging does not promote a tobacco product in a misleading manner," he said. Thus far, 73 other countries have banned such misleading descriptors, including those in European Union, Australia, Canada and Brazil. -- BERNAMA