Youngsters prone to smoking and chewing tobacco lack role models who can inspire them to quit using tobacco, Principal District and Sessions Judge Uma M.G. has said.
Speaking at a function organised on ‘World No Tobacco Day’ here on Sunday, Ms. Uma said that youngsters are influenced to use tobacco products.
Measures like “Cigarette smoking is injurious to health” comes just before a scene in the film which shows a character smoking cigarette. “This clipping has less effect than the one showing the actor smoking cigarette,” she said.
There was an absence of role models inspiring people to quit smoking and tobacco consumption.
Moreover, Ms. Uma said that statements by smokers saying that smoking did not cause any harm got more publicity that those asking to quit.
Superintendent of Police Sharanappa S.D. said that a campaign to free people from tobacco consumption could succeed only if the society was involved in it. “If each person assembled here decides to make a smoker or a tobacco consumer quit his addiction, then it makes a big difference,” he said.
Mr. Sharanappa said that the police have booked cases against persons smoking in public places and for other violations under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) (COTPA) Act.
In 2014, the district registered 700 cases and Mr. Sharanappa added that police in most of the districts in the State were complying with the Act, he said.
