Mauritania implements graphical health warnings on cigarette packaging
Mauritania has operationalised the illustration of health warnings since last week across the country.
The warnings demonstrated include photos of rotten teeth, deteriorated and diseased lungs.
These messages are intended to create public awareness, especially for young people, with regard to tobacco use.
The article n° 26 of the anti-tobacco law (20-2018) stipulates that “packages or cartridges and all forms of external packaging of tobacco products on sale in Mauritania must include a health warning covering at least 70% of the surface on both sides. These warnings must be in the form of images and texts written in the official languages in Mauritania.
The methods of packaging, labelling, and printing on packets, cartridges and cartons or other forms of packaging are set by order of the Minister responsible for public health”.
It is stated that the Minister of Health had issued a decree: n°000064 of 06/02/2020 which granted suppliers a period of nine months – until May 31, 2021, as a grace period to prepare and comply with the application of the aforementioned law.
The Ministry of Health recalled in December 2021, in a press statement that “persons whose products had been packaged before the entry of law into law had been exempted from this deposit, while the grace period which had given them granted had also expired at the end of last August”.
In general, packages without a health warning are not allowed to enter the country by law, authorities have warned.
Full article source: le calame