Experts in Uganda's ministry of health have ordered cigarette companies to put big labels on cigarette packets warning the public on the dangers of smoking.

Emmanuel Otaala, the minister of state for primary health care, flanked by other health officials was quoted by New Vision on Thursday as directing the National Bureau of Standards to enforce a regulation on the packaging and labeling of tobacco products.

Otaala said though cigarette packets must have large health labels, many companies in the country were flouting the regulation.

He explained that the caution must have large health warnings covering over 50 percent of the principal display area of the packet.

He noted that companies in Europe had obliged to the regulation but those in Uganda use false deceptive labeling.

Sam Zaramba, the country's Director General of Health Services, advised tobacco growers to grow alternative crops to save lives.

"Smoking causes 80 percent of the diseases. Assuming we stopped selling tobacco, we would have healthy people and spend less on health care. The diseases caused by smoking are chronic so one has to keep on getting treatment, hence living a person with no money, " Zaramba noted.

Sheila Ndyanabangi, a ministry principal medical officer, said in the past, smoking was sanctioned because the government was ignorant about the effects of tobacco.

"The government policy is that smoking is very dangerous and should be discouraged. The rights of non-smokers should also be protected," she argued.

She added that Uganda signed a World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2004, which requires governments to ban tobacco advertising and compel manufacturers to label cigarettes with a big and clear warning that "tobacco kills. "

She however noted that Uganda had not yet ratified the convention.

Source: Xinhua