In March, FCA staff will attend the World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) in Singapore. The Conference has been held every three years since 1967, and is a chance for researchers, advocates and public health officials to better coordinate their efforts in combating the tobacco epidemic.

(c) FCA, Andrew Kerr

As usual, FCA will have a team of experienced advocates at the upcoming Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on a Protocol on Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (INB5). We will also publish the Bulletin daily newspaper and organise the Death Clock ceremony.

A pre-INB briefing will be held for FCA members at Maison des associations on the afternoon of 28 March.

Madagascar has become the third country in Africa and at least the 46th country/ jurisdiction in the world to require picture-based health warnings for tobacco packages.

The Interministerial Decision was approved on 30 September 2011. It will require picture health warnings on packages of cigarettes and some other tobacco products. The warnings will have to cover 65 percent of the front and back of packages, with the picture on the front and a text message on the back.

Ireland is set to become the ninth European Union country to require picture warnings on tobacco packages, on 1 February 2013. It will follow Hungary, which recently announced its warnings will come into force on 1 September 2012.

The text in Ireland's warnings will be in both English and Irish.