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The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday said tobacco firms should follow the law to the letter and ensure that cigarettes sold in the country would include graphic photos bearing the ill effects of smoking starting next month.
The DOH made the announcement with the release of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Graphic Health Warning (GHW) law.
Alex Padilla, chair of the DOH-GHW IRR committee, welcomed the development even as he stressed the importance of the GHW law, which was designed to discourage the youth from adopting the smoking habit.
“The release of the IRR means that beginning first week of March, no cigarette packages may be imported, stored or warehoused without GHW requisite [and] by November, no violative package should be sold to the public,” Padilla told reporters yesterday.
The GHW law requires that the graphic images occupy 50 percent of the packs of tobacco products.
The DOH said the law will take effect on March 3, a year after the second publication of the templates of the pictures.
The multibillion-peso tobacco industry has also been given eight months or until November this year to ensure that all cigarette products in the market bear the stipulated graphic warnings.