Summary: The United Kingdom implemented their current health warnings policy to place pictorial health warnings on cigarette packages by October 2008 in 2007, as a result of the European Commission labelling directive. Including the border, health warnings will be required to 43% of the front and 53% of the back of all cigarette packages. Overall, 48% of the pack space is appropriated to health warnings. The United Kingdom will rotate a set of 15 images.  The United Kingdom also prohibits the terms "light" and "mild" from appearing on packages. As well, The United Kingdom requires tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide emission numbers to appear on the side of packages. These emission numbers are generated using the ISO machine smoking method.

Label Images

Click on the links below to access the United Kingdom's Health Warnings and Constituent Messages Galleries

United Kingdom's Health Warnings Gallery

United Kingdom's Constituent Messages Gallery   

Legislation and Regulations

Listed below are documents relating to the implementation and regulation of picture-based health warnings in the United Kingdom, which came into effect in 2007.

United Kingdom's The Tobacco Products Regulations 2007

Health Warnings Documents

A review of evidence on the effectiveness of text and pictoral warnings for the United Kingdom is listed below.

Government Health Warnings and the Boomerang Effect (Psychological Reports - Hyland et al.)
United Kingdom
1979

Health Warnings (Health Educ Jour - Cragg, Ross, Dawson)

United Kingdom

1985

Targeting Smokers via Tobacco Product Labelling: Opportunities and Challenges for Pan European Health Promotion (Health Promotion International - Devlin et al.)

United Kingdom

2005

Effectiveness of Cigarette Warning Labels in Informing Smokers About the Risks of Smoking ITC-4 (Tobacco Control - Hammond et al.)

United Kingdom

2006

Tobacco Denormalization and Industry Beliefs Among Smokers from Four Countries (Am Jour of Prev Med - Hammond et al.)

United Kingdom

2006

Consultation on the Introduction of Picture Warnings on Tobacco Packs (Government Report)

United Kingdom

2007

Text and Graphic Warnings on Cigarette Packages ITC-4 Study (Am Jour Prev Med - Hammond et al.)

United Kingdom

2007

The Introduction of Picture Warnings on Tobacco Packs (Government Report)

United Kingdom

2007

UK Government to Put Graphic Warnings on Tobacco Products (BMJ - Davis)

United Kingdom

2007

Exploring the Effectiveness of Cigarette Warning Labels: Findings from the United States and United Kingdom Arms of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey (Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark. - Hassan et al.)

United Kingdom

2008

Survey on Tobacco Analytic Report (Gallup Organisation - EC report)

European Union

2009

Constituent & Emissions Labelling

A review of evidence on the labelling and disclosure of chemicals found in tobacco products for the United Kingdom is listed below.

Relationship Between Constituent Labelling and Reporting of Tar Yields Among Smokers in Four Countries ITC-4 Study (Jour Publ Health - O Connor et al.)
United Kingdom
2006