Countries ranked for cigarette warnings

SEOUL, Nov. 14 (UPI) —

An international report released by the Canadian Cancer Society ranked Australia for best cigarette package health warnings, officials say.

The report ranked 198 countries and jurisdictions on the size of their health warnings on cigarette packages. Australia led all the countries with more than 82 percent of their cigarette packages covered with health warnings, followed by: 80 percent in Uruguay, 80 percent in Sri Lanka, 75 percent in Canada and 75 percent in Brunei.

The report was released at the fifth session of the Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Seoul this week.

"Canada’s improvement in the international rankings is very positive, and we recognize the Minister of Health, the Hon. Leona Aglukkaq, for bringing forward highly effective new warnings in Canada," Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society, said in a statement.

"Package warnings are a highly cost-effective means to increase awareness of the health effects and to reduce the use of tobacco. A picture says a thousand words. Pictures can convey a message with far more impact than a text-only message."