Health advocates led a marathon in Quezon City on Sunday to call for the urgent passage of a bill calling for picture-based health warnings in cigarette packs.
They joined mountaineer Noelle Wenceslao of the First Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition in the early morning marathon dubbed as “Run 4 Ur Life” around the University of the Philippines academic oval in Diliman.
The participants urged Congress to approve the bill that would compel cigarette companies to put picture-based warnings in every cigarette pack.
Dr. Maricar Limpin, executive director of Framework Convention on Alliance Philippines, said if enacted into a law, it shall impose the use of picture warnings instead of text advisories which have been found to be ineffective.
Limpin said picture-based warnings will occupy half of both the front and back sides of cigarette packs. They will depict real life debilitating diseases caused by tobacco smoking.
Picture-Based Health Warning bill pending in Congress
In December last year, Samar Rep. Paul Daza filed House Bill 3364, also known as the Picture-Based Health Warning bill.
Limpin pointed out that since the bill was filed, 57,840 Filipinos have already died due to smoking-related diseases.
Meanwhile, more than P21 billion in taxpayers’ money have already been spent to treat patients suffering from diseases related to smoking.
Smokers find picture-based warning effective
A survey conducted by the Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP) revealed that 96 percent of 1,307 Metro Manila respondents admitted that picture-based warnings against smoking would most likely make them quit when compared to text only health warnings.
Forty-one percent of respondents who smoked said text health warnings have no effect or are not enough to make people quit smoking. Only 23 percent of respondents who are smokers said the text warning adequately informed them about the health hazards of smoking while 12 percent believed it is not well displayed on the package.
Advertisements of cigarettes in newspapers, magazines and the like and sponsorship by tobacco companies are already banned as stipulated in Republic Act 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003.
Under the law, tobacco ads are prohibited in television, radio and moviehouses while outdoor billboards have been banned starting last year.