New warning pictures soon on tobacco products

The government will soon notify new pictorial warnings on tobacco products, which will be “harsher” in case of chewing tobacco as it has been found more harmful than smoking.

The Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “The pictorial warnings are in the process of notification and can be notified any day. The Directorate of Visual Publicity has selected some pictures. There will be two types of warnings — for cigarettes and for smokeless tobacco.” 

In a survey conducted by the Global Adult Tobacco Survey India in 2009-2010 it is found that 35 per cent of adults use tobacco in some or the other form. Among whom, 26 per cent adults use smokeless tobacco and nine per cent are smokers. Smokeless tobacco is responsible for 80 per cent of mouth cancer while 20 per cent of mouth cancers are occurring due to smoking.

Based on the results that smokeless tobacco products like gutka show are more widely used and are causing more mouth cancers, the government is bringing a “new policy,” Mr. Azad said adding, under this, “harsher” pictorial warnings will be brought in for chewing tobacco.

There are two existing pictorial warnings like scorpion and damaged lungs for cigarette while a new and stricter one — a cancer stricken mouth — was to be depicted from December 1. Such warnings are to be rotated every year.