Vietnam tobacco health warning proposals

Medical and public health experts in Vietnam are advocating for an increase in the size of health warnings on tobacco packaging. Current regulations require warnings to cover at least 50% of the front and back surfaces of cigarette packs, but experts, including Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen, have proposed increasing this to at least 85% to improve the prominence of health messages.

Proponents of the change note that tobacco use is linked to over 100,000 annual deaths in Vietnam. Associate Professor Le Thi Thanh Huong highlighted that the existing graphic warning images have not changed since 2013, leading to a decline in effectiveness. Research from 2024 suggests that smokers are becoming desensitized to the static imagery, with the proportion of smokers paying attention to warnings dropping by more than 10% since 2015.

Vietnam’s global ranking regarding the size of health warnings has also seen a significant decline, falling from 28th in 2014 to 119th in 2025. In contrast, neighboring countries like Thailand and Timor-Leste have implemented larger warning areas. A pilot study involving US CDC experts indicated that 85% coverage featuring new imagery and quit-line information resulted in a better understanding of tobacco harms and a higher intention to quit among smokers.