The path to Australia's tobacco health warnings

Abstract

Australia introduced new health warnings and contents labelling on cigarettes and other tobacco products from January 1995. The changes were based on recommendations emerging from research commissioned for that purpose. The research demonstrated the need for changes that changes could increase the noticeability of the warnings and contribute to an increase in relevant knowledge, and that the changes were acceptable to the public. The tobacco industry fought the changes and some modifications resulted, but new stronger warnings with elaborations on the back of the pack, an information number to call and elaborated contents labelling have been implemented.