Kicking the habit

Blunter warnings on tobacco packs may not be enough

The government’s move to make it mandatory for all packets of tobacco products to carry pictorial warnings on the health hazards of tobacco consumption is well intended, but it is doubtful whether this will have the desired impact. Under the new order, all packs of tobacco products like cigarettes, bidis and gutka, will now have to carry images of diseased human lungs along with blunter statutory warnings like ‘Tobacco kills’ and ‘Tobacco causes cancer’. The objective, apparently, is to convey the harmful effects of tobacco consumption to those who cannot read. But whether this message is sufficient to deter a person from smoking or chewing tobacco is debatable, considering that the written warning that ‘smoking is injurious to health’ has failed to check the consumption of tobacco among literates. Besides, it is uncertain whether unlettered smokers, many of whom may not be familiar with the human anatomy, would be able to decipher the picture to be that of an ailing lung or heart, and relate it tobacco consumption.

The problem is more complex in India than elsewhere in the world because of the varied forms and modes of tobacco use. Apart from smoking, tobacco is also chewed and ingested in the form of a variety of products which together account for nearly 35 per cent of the total tobacco consumed. Nearly 57 per cent of all men and about 11 per cent of women are estimated to be using tobacco in one form or another. Worse still, tobacco consumption is not uncommon among children as well, the number of child smokers being as high as five million. Little wonder, therefore, that nearly one million lives are lost annually due to tobacco-related diseases; the number of those who suffer from them and are under treatment, at a heavy cost to them and to the nation, is many times more.

Unlike countries where tobacco consumption is either leveling off or even decreasing, tobacco use is on the rise in India. Yet it is also true that India, despite being a major tobacco producer and exporter, played a significant role in the development of the framework convention on tobacco control (FCTC) under the World Health Organisation. It has also put in place a strong legal regime for regulating the production, promotion and use of tobacco products by enacting umbrella legislation, the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (prohibition of advertisement and regulation of trade and commerce, production, supply and distribution) Act, 2003. However, these legal curbs can produce only limited results because of the problem of enforcement—as evident in the case of the ban on smoking in public places, while surrogate advertisements continue to be in circulation. A more comprehensive action plan for tobacco control would involve simultaneous action on several fronts, such as hikes in the taxes on all tobacco products, disincentives for the production of tobacco and its products, incentives to farmers to switch to alternative crops, and consumer education campaigns.