Key Findings

The ITC Policy Evaluation Project has produced many documents, including journal articles and final reports, on the results of the ITC surveys.

13 October 2009:

Brazil Mexico Brazil - Portuguese version

ITC Brazil and ITC Mexico 4 page Summary Reports now available

8 Sept 2009:

Tobacco Warning Labels Report now available in EnglishandChinese.

Note: this is the second version of the English and Chinese reports, which adds a clarification to the date of implementation and enforcement of graphic warning labels in Malaysia.

The ITC Project has released the first in a series of FCTC policy-oriented reports focusing on Tobacco Warning Labels. The report was prepared for World No Tobacco Day, an annual event held on May 31, 2009, whose theme this year is pictorial warning labels. The report concludes from longitudinal studies of text and pictorial warnings across many countries that graphic pictorial warnings are more effective than text-only warnings. Specifically, graphic pictorial warnings: (a) are more noticeable and salient than text warnings, (b) enhance thoughts about the harms of smoking to a greater degree, (c) are stronger in their impact on motivating quitting among smokers. In addition, these reactions to pictorial warnings are associated with increased intentions to quit and to actual quit attempts. The ITC Project also recently conducted a large-scale experiment in China demonstrating that China's recent change from U.S.-style warnings (on the side of the pack) to a limited text-only warning on the front and back of 30% was rated by adult smokers, adult non-smokers, and youth alike as being much less effective than more prominent and harder hitting text warnings, which in turn were rated by those groups as being much less effective than the same text warnings accompanied by graphic imagery. The findings provide compelling evidence of the effectiveness of pictorial warnings and support the case for strong implementation of the FCTC Article 11 Guidelines which recommend pictorial warnings on at least 50% of the package.

World Health Organization World No Tobacco Day

Tobacco Labelling Resource

This website was created by Dr. David Hammond, Associate Professor in the Dept. of Health Studies and Gerontology at the University of Waterloo, to help promote effective, evidence-based packaging and labelling policies in support of Article 11 of the FCTC. The website was developed with the support of the Framework Convention Alliance and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

21 April 2009: France National Report

The France National Report provides a comprehensive look into the ITC France country project. It is available in both English and French.