In brief
On 11 January 2024, amendments to Article 12 of the Law of Ukraine "On measures to prevent and reduce the use of tobacco products and their harmful impact on public health" ("Law") came into force. These amendments specifically address medical warnings for consumers of tobacco smoking products and the stipulated requirements for the packaging of these products.
Key takeaways
The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine has approved 14 sets of medical warnings (variations in text and illustrations) developed by the Ministry of Health, along with technical requirements for designing and labelling tobacco products, including the following:
- Manufacturers are required to display updated graphical images with accompanying text depicting the health hazards and consequences of smoking
- Each individual package and external packaging of tobacco smoking products must bear a general warning and a combined medical warning, accompanied by a corresponding color illustration
- The general warning, featuring the text "Smoking kills — quit now," is to be positioned at the lower section of one of the lateral surfaces of both individual packs and external packaging of tobacco smoking products. Simultaneously, the informational message, consisting of the text "Tobacco smoke contains more than 70 substances known to cause cancer," must be situated at the lower section of another lateral surface
Recommendations
This marks a crucial milestone in implementing Directive 40/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which outlines a comprehensive set of measures to protect the public from the harm caused by tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.
