Pictures grafically show harms of smoking  

The extremely pictures will take up half of each pack on either side and show the harmful effects of smoking in gruesome detail. Authorities hope this will discourage people from smoking.

Cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, including 69 carcinogens, and has been linked to a wide range of fatal diseases such as lung cancer, heart disease, lung obstruction and even infertility.

Around 40,000 Vietnamese people die of cigarette-related diseases annually.

It seems that current written warnings about the dangers of smoking, which take up about a third of each pack, have been rather ineffective.

Six different warning pictures are set to be printed on new cigarette packs, which are to be changed every two years so as to continue to draw attention. Vietnam is following the lead of 63 other countries that have also implemented such policies since 2001. 

“Experience from many countries around the world showed that warning pictures on cigarette packs are effective at discouraging people from smoking, especially the young. In Brazil, two thirds of smokers have quit after the pictures were placed on cigarette packs, while a survey in Canada said that 44% of smokers who saw the pictures considered quitting," according to an official from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

New warning attract public attention  

MA Le Thi Thanh Huong from the University of Public Health said they had coordinated with the Vietnam Steering Committee on Smoking and Health to conduct a study on using a pilot programme which placed such pictures on cigarette packages in Hanoi and HCM City last November and December. The study showed that the warnings with images were more effective, and were able to reach the illiterate and children, said Huong. 

The WHO estimated that the warning pictures could prevent 500 smoking-related fatalities per year by 2023 and 750 by 2033.