Health warnings are the focus of Article 11 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world’s first health treaty. More than 160 countries inhabited by over 80% of the world’s population are parties to the FCTC and are required to implement ‘effective’ policies on health warnings. This report is designed to present policymakers with research evidence from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Policy Evaluation Project, the world’s most extensive research dedicated to evaluating the impact of policies of the FCTC. ITC research findings provide an evidence base that defines the components of effective warning labels and strongly supports the implementation of vivid, pictorial warnings. In short, the ITC Project offers evidence-based answers to the question: “What is effective and what is not effective for policies on health warnings?”
Health warnings on cigarette packages are among the most prominent sources of information about the harms of smoking and tobacco use. More smokers report getting information about the risks of smoking from packages than any other source except television.
1 Health warnings are an extremely cost-effective public health intervention compared to other tobacco prevention efforts such as paid mass media advertising, given their tremendous reach and frequency of exposure. Smokers who smoke 20 cigarettes per day, for example, are potentially exposed to the warnings at least 7300 times per year. Non-smokers, including children and youth, also report high exposure and awareness of health warnings on packages.
2 Research conducted by the ITC Project has proven that warning labels are an effective risk communication tool for:
1. Educating/informing smokers and non-smokers about the many negative health consequences of smoking.
 2. Motivating and encouraging smokers to quit and non-smokers not to start smoking.
3. Providing information to enhance efficacy for quitting.

There is another important reason for implementing strong health warnings on tobacco packages. Tobacco packaging is used by the tobacco industry to reinforce brand imagery, to minimize perceptions of risk, and to suggest incorrectly that some types of cigarettes are less harmful than others (e.g. use of “mild” and lighter colour packages to suggest less harm). Effective warning labels can counteract misleading messages and convey the health risks of smoking and exposure to second hand smoke.i