Prime Minister Narendra Modi was urged by the World Health Organisation to implement increased number of pictorial warnings on tobacco based products to stay committed to the workings behind the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Also Read - This is how smoking, tobacco use make you more vulnerable to COVID-19

Also Read - DO THIS when you see someone smoke

In India, nearly a million deaths occur every year due to tobacco related diseases. Tobacco is not only a major risk factor contributing to the deaths related to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) it also affects the fiscal and economic health of the country. India falls short on packaging guidelines for tobacco based products. Also Read - Health issues like smoking in your youth can make your brain weaker during old age

The tobacco industry will undoubtedly raise unfounded concerns about impact on economic trade especially loss of livelihood to farmers and bidi rollers but evidence shows that tobacco producers are trapped in a cycle of exploitation and poverty, UN World Health Organisation’s Director-General Margaret Chan said in her letter to the Prime Minister.

Also, Dr Nata Menabde, WHO representative to India, issued a statement in which she stated that India, though being a party to the WHO FCTC, has not fully complied with the tobacco pack warnings which currently occupy only 40 percent of the principal display on one side of the pack.

Plain cigarette packaging could urge smokers to quit

As per a new study, cigarettes packaged in a plain manner are less appealing to smokers. Large pictorial warnings could urge them to quit smoking.

As per the study published in the online journal BMJ Open, the conclusion was based on interviews of 536 smokers in the Australian state of Victoria during November 2012 when plain packs were already available in the run-up to and immediately after implementation of the legislation requiring all tobacco sold at retail outlets to be contained in plain packs. Here’s more about this study.

With inputs from PTI

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