Color photo and information on opportunities for smoking cessation will be found on cigarette packs and other tobacco products from June 1, 2027 in Serbia. The Ministry of Health adopted the Rulebook on the position, design, form and content of combined health warnings on tobacco products, which prescribes 14 different text health warnings to be combined with appropriate photos.
Rules predicted three sets of ten photos each. Among them are a photo of a black toe, then a baby with a pacifier and coughing up blood. There is also a photograph of tongue cancer, a child standing on a grave, and a woman in advanced pregnancy.
Among the messages are: "Smoking causes 9 out of 10 lung cancers", "Smoking causes mouth and throat cancer", "Smoking damages your lungs", "Smoking causes heart attacks", "Smoking causes strokes and disability" and "Smoking damages your arteries".
Along with the health warning, there will also be information on help when quitting smoking, with the phone number 080 020 0002 and the website. www.ostavipusenje.rs.
Photographs can have a psychological effect
The vice-president of the National Consumer Organization of Serbia (NOPS) Zoran Nikolić believes that the new visual warnings on the packs will not significantly affect existing smokers, but that the photos on the packs could have a greater psychological effect on potential users.
He says that this way of marking is already present in some countries, among which are North Macedonia and Turkey. In Turkey, health warnings occupy almost the entire front and back of the package, while the brand name is much less prominent.
"Those pictures have already become popular in Turkey and North Macedonia. In Turkey, you can't even see the name of the cigarette, instead there is a warning on the entire front and back, and you can only see the name of the cigarette somewhere on the side," explains Nikolić to Biznis.rs.
The possible impact of the new warnings on the number of smokers will only be assessed in the long term.
When it comes to the business of tobacco companies, Nikolić does not expect significant additional costs due to the change in the appearance of the packaging.
"Tobacco companies will just do another design and adapt. They are already ready for it, it was just a matter of days when it will come to us. Such labeling is already present in the environment and they will not do it only for our market. It is probably a question of centralized procurement, so I don't think it will have too much impact on their costs," he says.
At the same time, Nikolić cannot assess whether the new warnings will directly affect the sale of cigarettes, but he believes that their effect should be observed in the long term, through a possible reduction in the number of people who start smoking.
What will the package look like?
Combined health warnings on the packaging of tobacco products will be divided into three groups, which will change on an annual basis. The first rotation will begin on June 1, 2027.
According to the new rules, manufacturers and importers of tobacco products will be obliged to ensure that each of the prescribed warnings appears an equal number of times on each brand during the year, as far as possible.
All three warning elements – photo, text warning and information about quitting smoking – must be clearly visible on each package. The photos will be displayed without special effects, color changes or retouching, which dictates their unique appearance on all packages.
Special rules apply to packages with a flip-top lid. They provide that when opening the package, the individual elements of the health warning are not separated.
The arrangement of the photo, text warning and information about smoking cessation will depend on the size of the cover. In both foreseen cases, the photo must occupy at least 50 percent of the surface, the textual warning at least 30 percent, while the information about quitting smoking should occupy between 10 and 12 percent of the surface.
The new Rulebook on the appearance, content and manner of highlighting the sign prohibiting the sale of tobacco and related products to minors regulates how the sign "Prohibited sale of tobacco and related products to minors" will be displayed.
The label will have to be displayed in retail stores, as well as on humidors, that is, special boxes and cabinets intended for storing cigarettes.
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