India: Campaign to Remove Tobacco Hoardings to be Launched

Source from:  Times of India  06/17/2013

Taking strict action against tobacco advertisements, district administration will constitute teams to remove all advertisements showing various brands of tobacco products.

It will launch a campaign in the urban and rural areas of the city to remove hoardings from point of sale of tobacco products.

Additional district magistrate Harsahai Meena said, "It is a two-day campaign to remove all tobacco ad hoardings from the point of sale."

In the past month, the administration, city police and the civic bodies along with the tobacco products' manufacturing companies had removed advertisement boards but several shops are still displaying such boards in a violation of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) 2003.

A health department official said the city police instructed the tobacco product companies to remove all the advertisement boards which are flouting COTPA norms. The police had given five days to remove the boards but several shops are still displaying it.

Several companies, the official said, pay money to shopkeepers to display the advertisement boards of a particular cigarette brand or other tobacco products. "The shopkeeper can only display a board which should be 45 x 60 cms and not display the name of any tobacco brand. Further, it should display the type of tobacco products like cigarette or khaini available at the shop but not carry any photograph of the brand. Also, 25% of the area of the board should carry a health warning against tobacco consumption. The board should not be illuminated and have a white background with the text in black."

The official said that illuminating boards with mention of brand of cigarette or other tobacco product with pictures lure youngsters to consume the product. Removing the hoardings is part of the strategy to control consumption of tobacco products.

So, there is World Health organization's that tobacco products advertising increase the sale and if advertisements are not removed, and then the sale of the product decreases. So, it is one of the strategies to control consumption of tobacco products. Enditem