The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Support of celluloid, small screen sought to curb smoking

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Wednesday, Apr 29, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Support of celluloid, small screen sought to curb smoking

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The highly influential Tamil film industry and the hugely popular entertainment television sector were on Sunday urged to work together with the Government of India in preventing the emergence of new young smokers.

Addressing a consultation on tobacco co-hosted by World Health Organisation and the Tamilnadu Tobacco Control Coalition (TTCC), Bhavani Thyagarajan, WHO advisor, appealed to the industries to restrict tobacco product placements and avoiding, “until in case of strong editorial justification”, the scenes of lead characters indulging in using tobacco on screen.

Dr. Thyagarajan made it clear that the Government of India had, through promulgating the “Cigarette and other Tobacco Products Act 2003” sought only to utilise the immense power of the medium of cinema and entertainment television to discourage smoking, especially among adolescent youth rather than clamp down on directorial creativity.

“The essence of the Act is not to take away the fundamental right of speech and expression but to protect the passive smoker’s right to health,” she said.

The Act also derived from WHO inputs on the overwhelming body of evidence about the impact of cinema portrayal of smoking, she added.

Dr. Thyagarajan pointed out that celebrities wielded tremendous influence over the masses, especially adolescent youth, and should use their stature as role models to help the Government’s preventive campaigns. She cited an as yet unpublished study in Bangalore city, where 18 per cent of boys and 6 per cent of girls surveyed said that they had an urge to smoke when they watched a movie scene showing a lead character smoking a cigarette.

Dr. Thyagarajan also suggested that the film industry could have been misled by the powerful tobacco lobby into interpreting the Act as an infringement on freedom of express.

According to the WHO advisor, where once cigarette consumption was a villain’s vice, modern cinema was portraying heroes lighting up on screen.

“Even an innocuous scene involving a lead character had a high recall value”, she said.

Dr. Thyagarajan pointed out that studies had shown that between 2004 and 2005, placement of tobacco products had increased from 76 per cent to 89 per cent, while the scenes involving a lead character lighting up on screen shot up manifold.

E. Vidhubala, director of the Tobacco Cessation Clinic at Adyar Cancer Institute, said cigarettes contained a cocktail of 4,000 toxic chemicals, of which around 200 were identified as carcinogens. Smokers put themselves at risk of developing 54 types of cancers involving 14 vital organs. She said that unlike in reel life, there were no opportunities for retakes in the real world.

Joseph Raj, TTCC director said those who argue that smoking was personal prerogative should remember that the habit put the health of others at risk.

Cyril Alexander, head of the Mary Ann Trust, spoke.

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