India: Delhi Bans Chewable Tobacco for a Year

Source from:  The Hindu 04/18/2016

The Delhi government has banned for one year the sale, purchase and storage of all forms of chewable tobacco, including "guthka, pan masala, khaini and zarda", in the Capital.

The Department of Food Safety on Thursday issued a notification in this regard on Wednesday.

According to the notification, unpackaged products of chewable tobacco, too, are within the ambit of the ban.

Stating that tobacco is known to cause adverse impact on health of consumers and could also lead to alteration of the genetic make-up of future generations, the notification said: "The manufacture, storage, distribution, or sale of tobacco which is either flavoured, scented or mixed... and whether going by the name or form of guthka, pan, masala, flavoured/scented tobacco, kharra, or otherwise... whether packaged or unpackaged and/or sold as one product, or though packaged as separate products, sold or distributed in such manner so as to easily facilitate mixing by the consumer is prohibited for a period of one year."

Previously a notification was issued by Delhi government in September, 2012, in pursuance of a series of directions from Supreme Court for a ban on 'guthka' in the city. But since the term 'gutkha' was used in that notification, tobacco retailers started selling the components of 'guthka' (betel nut and raw tobacco) in separate pouches, thus defeating the purpose behind the ban.

The health department now has said that all forms of chewable tobacco products in Delhi are banned. Enditem