Australia now has the largest graphic health warnings in the world

On 23 December 2011, the Australian Government made the new standard which updates and expands the graphic health warning regime in Australia.  Health warnings will now be required to cover 75% of the front of packs and 90% of the back of packs (for cigarettes, slightly different for other packaging formats).  A new set of 14 health warnings for cigarette packaging and new warnings for other tobacco products, including single sale cigars, were also included in the new standard.
 
Tobacco manufacturers and importers can choose to use either the old warnings or the updated warnings between 1 January 2012 – 30 November 2012.  From 1 December 2012, all packaging must have the updated warnings along with being compliant with the new plain packaging requirements.
 
The Government undertook extensive research to inform the new warnings and this research, along with the research for plain packaging, can be found at:
http://www.yourhealth.gov.au/internet/yourhealth/publishing.nsf/Content/...
 
The standard which contains the updated warnings are under a different piece of legislation to plain packaging – see links and a copy of the media release below.