On 7 Oct 2015, the healthcare committee of Ukraine’s Parliament approved a draft law that calls for larger graphic health warnings on tobacco packages.
The law, based on a 2014 European Union directive, is staunchly opposed by the tobacco industry, whose representatives attended an intense committee session on 7 Oct. The measures in the draft law include:
- Increasing warnings’ size from 50 percent to 65 percent, and placing them on the top portion of packages;
- Prohibiting tobacco additives and flavours;
- Regulations for electronic cigarettes.
“We prevented an unsuccessful attempt to ‘kill’ the anti-tobacco draft law said Andriy Skipalskyi, Chairman of Advocacy Center Life and co-author of the draft law. “But to abandon progressive EU norms that costs zero to the state budget, and to postpone the decision would be irresponsible,” he added in a press release.
The draft law could be presented to Parliament before the end of 2015.
Read more: http://www.fctc.org/fca-news/opinion-pieces/1361-1-step-closer-to-larger-pack-warnings-in-ukraine
