Chinese smokers may not have imagined the day: Health warnings -- words or pictures -- soon may cover at least 30 percent of the printed surface of cigarette packages in China.

That's because the Chinese Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Wang Guangya, signed a bellwether agreement on Monday in New York at the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

At the moment, there is usually just a simple one-sentence statement on Chinese cigarette packages: "Smoking hurts your health."

In a nation with 350 million smokers, improving warnings on cigarette packaging is a step in the right direction.

But it is only one part of 17 strict tobacco measures listed in the convention signed on Monday, including measures involving advertising, marketing, pricing and taxation of tobacco.

As the world's biggest tobacco producer and consumer, China witnesses more than 2,000 people killed due to smoking-related diseases per day. And the number of deaths expected to reach 8,000 per day in 2050, statistics indicate.

China has become the 77th member country to sign the convention, adopted during the 56th World Health Assembly that took place in May 2003.

However, when the convention officially takes effect in China still depends on when China's top legislative body, the National People's Congress, passes it.

(China Daily November 12, 2003)