World No Tobacco Day highlights importance of health warnings

      The theme “Tobacco Health Warnings” is launched on World No Tobacco Day 2009 on May 31 and also a slogan for national “no smoking” week May 24-31 in Vietnam, announced by the Ministry of Health.
Following the World Heath Organisation, the health warnings in pictures is an effective education channel with low expenditure because almost smokers see the message. The WHO chose the subject of the World No Tobacco Day this year as “health warnings describing the harmful effects of tobacco use” on tobacco packaging.
In Vietnam, the health warnings cover 30 percent of each tobacco packaging. A recent study shows the number of male smokers in Vietnam can be reduced by 1.1 percent in the immediate future, and even by 38.5 percent until 2033.
Every year Vietnam is estimated to have 40,000 deaths from smoking-related diseases, four times the number of deaths from traffic accidents. The total social cost for the three most common diseases caused by smoking is over VND1,000 billion, equivalent to 20 percent of the entire state budget for public heath.