Evaluation of the Educational Impact of Illustrated Health Warnings on Cigarette Packets for Tobacco Fighting in the DRC

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been concerned for more than a decade with the fight against tobacco at the global level by implementing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). More than 190 countries around the world have adhered to this convention by strengthening their internal policies to reduce tobacco consumption and protect their populations against the harmful effects of this very dangerous substance for health “TOBACCO”. The DRC joined the framework convention on June 28, 2004, and ratified it on June 28, 2005, to implement an internal policy to combat smoking throughout its national territory. To this end, a ministerial decree on measures applicable to the consumption and use of tobacco, tobacco products and its derivatives was signed in October 2007. The guidelines in this order require the tobacco industry to include health warnings on cigarette packages, including: “Smoking is harmful to your health (1), Warning: smoking kills (2), tobacco seriously harms your health (3), smoking is highly addictive (4) specifying the tar and nicotine content”. These warnings should play a great educational and awareness-raising role in discouraging tobacco users and ipso facto reducing tobacco consumption as a preventive strategy of Communication for the change of anti-tobacco behavior. This study evaluates the educational impact of health illustrations to strengthen the implementation of the framework convention and protect the population against the harmful effects of tobacco, tobacco products and its derivatives in the DRC.