In a major blow to the tobacco control campaign, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has decided to put on hold its earlier decision to increase pictorial warnings on tobacco products from the current 40 per cent to 85 per cent.
The Ministry had in October 2014 issued a notification making it mandatory for cigarette manufacturing companies to carry statutory warning against smoking on both sides of a cigarette pack and covering at least 85 per cent of the packaging beginning April 1, 2015.
But on Thursday officials confirmed that the notification has been put in abeyance as a Lok Sabha committee on subordinate legislations, looking into amendments to the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, has urged the government to delay the date of implementation so that it could hold more discussions with stakeholders and submit its final report.
“A fresh date will soon be notified. For now, the new warning requirements will not be enforced from April 1 as we have followed the committee’s instructions to do so,” an official told The Hindu .
Oral cancerNon-governmental organisations working for a ban on tobacco use have pointed out that there are studies to show that rampant use of chewing tobacco is associated with high prevalence of oral cancer in India. Almost 90 per cent of these cases are linked to tobacco. India also has the highest prevalence of oral cancer globally, with 75,000 to 80,000 new cases being reported every year.
Critical of the move, Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, executive director, Voluntary Health Association of India, said: “It is clear that the chairman of the Subordinate Legislative Committee, Dilip Gandhi, has overstepped the mandate. There is no precedence, no provision in the framework of rules of procedure which obligates the Ministry of Health to accept recommendations (that too on technical matters of public health significance). As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Health can very well reject the recommendations by giving reasons, considering it is an important matter of public health.”
Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, Professor, Head and Neck Surgeon, Tata Memorial Hospital, said: “It is shocking that a senior MP is so poorly informed about the facts pertaining to harmful effects of tobacco. In fact, tobacco is the only consumer product that has no good use whatsoever apart from killing every third consumer. Tobacco is the cause of 50 per cent cancers in India.”
