Tobacco packages to carry health warning

A health warning, comprising a text and images, about the harmful effects of tobacco and tobacco products will be made compulsory from August 9 on all packages of such items sold in Qatar in an initiative supported by the Supreme Council of Health. The move aimed at curbing the growing consumption of tobacco in the country is being enforced as part of implementing the Gulf Standard Specifications for labelling of tobacco product packages, authorised by the board of directors in August last year.

Dr Mohamed Saif al-Kuwari, Assistant Under Secretary for Laboratories and Standardisation Affairs, has told local Arabic daily Arrayah that the import of all tobacco products that do not have such warnings in accordance with the Gulf-Qatari Standard Specification will be stopped starting from August 9. He indicated that many workshops and forums had been held to prepare for the application of such standards. The SCH will be in charge of implementing the decision and making sure that tobacco products that do not have such warnings are banned from entering the country.

He also said that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) had been notified about this decision. In the meantime, a grace period of three months will be granted to finish the existing stock in the country that does not comply with the new specifications. Yet, any new non-compliant product would be banned from entering the country. He said that this measure was aimed at spreading awareness about the adverse health effects of consuming tobacco in all its types, especially among young people. According to the specifications, “the area of the warning image must not be less than 50% of the main display area (including the frame) at the bottom of both the front and back panels of the package.”

The warning text will be written in Arabic and English. The text of the Arabic warning must be written in black on a white background using the Simplified Arabic font. The text of the English warning must be written in the Times New Roman font. The font size of the text in both languages must be not less than 12 points and in bold style. The warnings shall be written in such a way that it is difficult to remove them in any way, and so that the text is not hidden or concealed or overlapping with other text or image, and so that it is not affected by opening the package. Both warnings must be surrounded by a black frame that is 1 mm thick.

 Further, the following information also must be written on tobacco package labelling: Product name and trademark, number of cigarettes or the equivalent, or the weight of tobacco products at the time of packaging, production date in month and year format, percentage of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide, batch number, country of origin, manufacture, or packaging, the statement “For sale in the Gulf Co-operation Council Countries”. The rule is applicable to any product that consists wholly or partially of tobacco leaves as a raw material, manufactured for the purpose of smoking, chewing, snuffing, or sucking . The GCC Standardisation Organisation is a regional body whose membership includes the national specifications and standards agencies of the Gulf countries. Among the organisation’s tasks is the formulation of standard specifications for the Gulf countries through specialised technical committees.