New Delhi, 13 March (IANS): Come June 1 and cigarette packets and tobacco products will carry a new set of pictorial health warnings, an NGO said Wednesday.

Binoy Matthew of Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), an NGO said: ‘The ministry of health and family welfare March 5 notified the new pictorial health warnings which will be implemented on all tobacco products from June 1.’

‘Since the news came just a few days before the No Smoking Day, which is today, we are very happy. VHAI had field tested these pictorial warnings in seven states in the country and found them to be most effective,’ he told IANS.

The seven states where VHAI tested the pictorial warnings for efficacy were Orissa, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

‘The pictorial warnings on tobacco products were enforced May 31 last year. However they were found to be ineffective. Further the rules mandate that the pictorial warnings should be rotated every 12 months – thus the new warnings which shows a picture of oral cancer, will be implemented in June,’ Matthew said.