Best blog : NewsPatrolling.com :Public Health Fraternity today welcomed the Supreme Court decision on retaining the 85 percent pictorial health warnings on tobacco products. The Supreme Court stayed an order by the Karnataka high court which struck down a regulation that tobacco product packages must have a pictorial warning covering 85% of the space. As a result, tobacco companies will have to go back to carrying a pictorial warning covering 85% on both sides of tobacco products. The current pictorial warnings on both sides of all tobacco packages of cigarettes, bidis and all forms of chewing tobacco products came into effect from April 2016 upon the direction of Rajasthan High Court and subsequently Supreme Court of India and have been in effect for almost 2 years.
The Supreme Court emphasised the importance of public health and the harmful effects of tobacco products, observing that the Karnataka high court could not have struck down a policy decision mandating 85% pictorial warning on tobacco products.
Dr. Harit Chaturvedi, Chairman, Surgical Oncology, Max Health Care, Delhi “It’s very reassuring that SC has respected and upheld Health Ministry‘s landmark decision of having 85 percent pictorial health warnings on tobacco products! This decision reiterates Indian government’s commitment to public health and to retain India as global leader in tobacco control”.
India’s current international ranking for package warnings is no. 3rd in the world, as outlined in the October 2016 Canadian Cancer Society Report, Cigarette Package Health Warning International Status Report that ranked 205 countries worldwide. The entire world applauded this progressive step taken by India in tobacco control and saving human lives. Implementing 85 percent pictorial warnings was a landmark step taken by the Government of India. Shri J.P. Nadda was awarded by the World Health Organization for this major reform in public health.
Dr. Vishal Rao, Head & Neck Cancer Surgeon and Member of High-Powered Committee on Tobacco Control, Government of Karnataka “The Attorney General statement in the court that increase of pack warnings to 85% on tobacco packs is one of the most progressive step for public health by this Government is a big support to tobacco control, which got its due credit from the court when it termed tobacco as destructive to public health”.
The recently released Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2016-17 by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) had put to rest all apprehensions about the effectiveness of the warnings, since 62% of cigarette smokers and 54% of bidi smokers shared that they had thought of quitting because of the 85 percent pictorial warnings on the packets. And 46% of smokeless tobacco users thought of quitting because of the warnings on smokeless tobacco products.
Pictorial health warnings on tobacco products are the most cost-effective tool for educating on the health risks of tobacco use. In a country like India, where people use several languages and dialects, the pictorial warning transcends the language and in many cases also the illiteracy barrier. The 85 percent pictorial warnings on all cigarettes, bidis and chewing tobacco packages manufactured and sold in India, have resulted in 92% of adults (surveyed under GATS 2016-2017) believing that smoking caused serious illness, and 96% saying that use of smokeless tobacco causes serious illness. The findings also revealed that there has been a growing demand for cessation centres as 55% of smokers and 50% of smokeless tobacco users were planning or thinking of quitting tobacco use.
According to MoHFW-WHO supported study, Economic Burden of Tobacco-Related Diseases in India, the estimated total costs attributable to tobacco use from all four diseases in India in the year 2011 amounted to a staggering Rs 1, 04,500 crores — 12% more than the combined state and central government expenditure on health care in the same year, and 1.16 percent of Indian GDP.
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