Eighty percent warnings to be given statutory footing

Sri Lanka’s Cabinet of Ministers has approved legislation to compel tobacco companies to include on their cigarette packs health warnings taking up 80 percent of the packs’ surface [presumably the front and back surfaces], according to a number of local reports.

The law is due to be enacted by Parliament during the 100 day program of the new government.

In May last year, while dismissing a challenge filed by the country’s leading tobacco-products manufacturer against the government’s requirement for the inclusion of graphic warnings on cigarette packs, a court reduced the size of the warnings from 80 percent to 50-60 percent.

Speaking at a weekly Cabinet press briefing yesterday, Health Minister and Cabinet spokesman, Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, said that the earlier decision about the size of the health warnings had been made by the former health minister, and, therefore, the court had been able to nullify that decision.

This time, he said, the government would ensure that the legislation requiring 80 percent pictorial warnings would be legitimized through parliament, in which case no court would be able to strike it down.