India: Anti-tobacco Lobby Unhappy with Panel Report, Wants 85% Pictorial Warning

Source from:  The Hindu 03/21/2016

Sixty-seven tobacco control organisations have written to the Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda expressing their disappointment over the recently tabled report of the Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate Legislation (CoSL).

The panel has suggested reducing the area of pictorial warning on all tobacco packs - compared to its earlier recommendation.

The pictorial warnings are scheduled to be implemented by April 1, 2016.

The letter said: "it is disheartening to see that the panel has primarily kept the interests of the tobacco industry in mind and ignored the overwhelming scientific evidence of large-scale death and disease attributable to tobacco use in India."

"The observations made by the committee in several places are not only factually incorrect but have tried to portray a one-sided scenario based on arguments which are often made by the tobacco industry to mislead and misinform the policy makers and undermine vital tobacco control measures of the government," added the letter.

The recommendations of the CoSL report are not binding on the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

The decision to implement the pack warnings (85 per cent front and back) on all tobacco product packages was made solely by the MoHFW.

The new pictorial health warnings, covering 85 per cent on both sides of all tobacco packs, was notified in October 2014 to be implemented from April 1, 2015.

However, the government indefinitely delayed its implementation after a parliamentary committee directed the Health Ministry to keep the notification in abeyance.

The Rajasthan High Court has also directed the Health Ministry to take steps for implementation of pictorial warnings from April 1, 2016.

The Health Ministry has been insistent on implementing 85 per cent pictorial health warnings on both sides of all tobacco products and even submitted an affidavit in the High Court that it will be implemented from April 1, 2016.

The panel, in its 210th report presented on September 3, 2013 to Rajya Sabha, had recommended that the Ministry strengthen rules relating to statutory warnings by prescribing stronger, effective and field-tested pictorial health warnings covering at least 90 per cent of the principal display area of the tobacco products. Enditem