Less regular cigarettes and more e-cigarettes...'Warning Picture' Becomes Strong

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Tobacco use behavior has changed significantly, such as a decrease in the smoking rate of general cigarettes and an increase in the smoking rate of e-cigarettes.

The government plans to manage smoking rates by putting stronger warning phrases and pictures on cigarette pack packaging than before.

Reporter Baek Jong-gyu's report.

[Reporter]
A community health survey of 230,000 adults conducted by health authorities showed 22.6% of tobacco product users.

It is 0.4%p higher than last year, a slight increase.

The smoking rate, which slowed down during the COVID-19 pandemic, continued to increase, but the number of male smokers decreased and the number of female smokers increased.

Gangwon had the highest rate of tobacco product use by region, and Sejong had the lowest level.

What's notable is the smoking rate of regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes, while the smoking rate of regular cigarettes has remained steadily on the decline
The rate of use of liquid and cigarette e-cigarettes in
showed a clear increase, up 0.6%p from last year to 8.7%.

To raise consumer awareness, the government has decided to put strong warning phrases and pictures highlighting the dangers of smoking in cigarette packs.

There are a total of 10 types of cigarette-type cigarette pack warning pictures, and detailed diseases such as eye diseases and peripheral blood vessel diseases have been added without "shortening life" or "fertility of deformed babies."

In addition, warning phrases change from word-type expressions such as 'lung cancer' to more intuitive sentence-type expressions such as 'path to lung cancer'.

I'm BAEK JONG KYU of YTN.