Exposing the inconvenient truth of tobacco in China: a nationwide exhibition of graphic pack warnings
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ThinkTank Research Center for Health Development, China
Publication date: 2018-03-01
Tob. Induc. Dis. 2018;16(Suppl 1):A763
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ABSTRACT
Background and challenges to implementation:
Implementation
of FCTC in China has been slow, especially pack warning. After three upgrades,
China's current pack warnings are still limited to only generic health impact
text with no graphs. The major opposition comes from China's tobacco industry,
which is itself also a government agency in charge of policies regarding labelling.
This is the inconvenient truth of China's tobacco control work. The Chinese
public need to see the distances and differences between China's cigarette
packing and other's countries', China's FCTC commitment on graphic warnings,
and more importantly, this inconvenient truth. Considering China's size, this
work can only be done with massive public support via an effective volunteer
network.
Intervention or response:
ThinkTank Research
Centre for Health Development launched an exhibition of pack warnings from
different countries. The exhibition went onto a
nationwide tour to educate the public about China's weak implementation of this
FCTC commitment, as well as tobacco industry's interference. This nationwide
network combined both government agencies, the China Centre for Disease
Control, and volunteers, who could download a tool kit for local satellite
exhibitions. The offline physical and online virtual exhibitions reached more
public.
Results and lessons learnt:
The
tour exhibition has reached China's 31 mainland provinces, receiving over 500
million direct visitors. More than 300 core volunteers have downloaded the tool
kits, produced their own exhibitions, and run regular local tobacco control
activities. This public momentum resulted in 12 label-related proposals by
legislators and congress members at China's annual congress conferences.
Conclusions and key recommendations:
Tobacco
control work goes beyond policy makers, especially when one of the policy
makers is in fact the tobacco industry. It is important to mobilize volunteers
that include real smokers, real SHS victims, smoke-free champions. Their call
for stronger pack warnings, as well as other MPOWER policies, will send strong
signal to policy makers.