It is an irony that a country that introduced text health warnings in 1966 and updated it in 1984 to include the Surgeon General’s warning, cigarettes packages in the U.S still do not carry pictorial warnings. Ten years after the Congress passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, on August 15 this year, … Continue reading Pictorial warning: Will public health override free speech in the U.S?
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India to use scarier yet banal pictorial warnings on tobacco products
Starting September 2018, all tobacco products will have scarier pictorial warnings and new grimmer written messages. And for the first time, toll-free telephone numbers will be displayed on packets to help people who want to quit. The graphic warnings will have less effects as they will highlight the same theme of oral cancer. Contrary to … Continue reading India to use scarier yet banal pictorial warnings on tobacco products
Get ready for plain packaging of tobacco products
Following Australia’s example, for this year's World No Tobacco Day on May 31 the World Health Organisation is calling on countries to “get ready for plain packaging of tobacco products”. Plain packaging refers to “measures to restrict or prohibit the use of logos, colours, brand images or promotional information on packaging other than brand names … Continue reading Get ready for plain packaging of tobacco products
Let larger pictorial warnings stay
Nearly one million tobacco-related deaths take place in India every year, and in 2011, the total health expenditure burden from all diseases due to tobacco use amounted to more than Rs.1,00,000 crore, which is 12 per cent more than the combined State and Central government expenditure on health in 2011-12. The revenue earned through tobacco … Continue reading Let larger pictorial warnings stay
Parliamentary committee recommends smaller pictorial warnings
Health Ministry's plan to introduce pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent of the display area on the front and back sides of tobacco products from April 1, 2016 has hit a major roadblock. - Photo: R. Prasad Two weeks before pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent of the principal display area of the front and … Continue reading Parliamentary committee recommends smaller pictorial warnings
Sounding the smoke alarm on sale of tobacco to minors
Thanks to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, tobacco companies in India may find it hard to lure children below the age of 18 into the tobacco habit. According to the Act, anyone who sells these products to underage children will face rigorous imprisonment up to seven years and a fine … Continue reading Sounding the smoke alarm on sale of tobacco to minors
Editorial: This tobacco warning should stay
Following a controversy sparked recently over remarks by some Members of Parliament on tobacco use, a group of leading film-makers is seeking to dilute the strong tobacco control measures undertaken by successive governments. The film-makers have made a representation to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to withdraw the stipulation that cinemas run a warning scroll … Continue reading Editorial: This tobacco warning should stay
A pictorial warning must shock
What is the connection between a scorpion, tobacco and cancer? Well, absolutely nothing. If any, it is the crab that is an international symbol of cancer. Yet, the previous government chose the scorpion as one of the pictorial warnings on tobacco products! Though the current controversy on pictorial warnings has finally boiled down to the … Continue reading A pictorial warning must shock
Editorial: Discouraging cigarette sales
f cigarettes in the loose, and raise the minimum age from 18 to 21 for the sale of tobacco products, clearly reflects the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s steely determination to wage an all-out war against tobacco consumption. These are commendable initiatives that would go a long way in preventing children from taking up … Continue reading Editorial: Discouraging cigarette sales
Editorial: The ways of tobacco companies
For several decades, tobacco companies across the world vehemently denied and blatantly deceived and misled people about the dangers of smoking. That the American companies continued with their abhorrent acts of deception despite the U.S. Surgeon General warning 50 years ago that “cigarette smoking is a health hazard” is shocking. But the tide is turning, … Continue reading Editorial: The ways of tobacco companies
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