In India, tobacco kills at least 10 lakh people every year. All the same, over 250 million people use tobacco products like gutka, cigarettes and bidis and more than 5500 adolescents initiate tobacco use every day. These indicative figures have become a cause for grave concern amongst human welfare organizations across the world like WHO, Advocacy Forum for Tobacco Control, Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, Salaam Bombay, Hirdayshan, World Lung Foundation, and others who voice their apprehension over further delay and dilution of pictorial warnings in India.

Talking about the implications of further delay in the implementation of the warnings, Dr PC Gupta, director Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, stated, “Every day’s delay in implementing pictorial warnings labels cost lives. The most affected are the poor and illiterate who use tobacco the most and would benefit the most from strong pictorial warnings as they are least aware of the harm from tobacco.”

Throwing light on the world scenario, Dr Douglas Bettcher, director, Tobacco Free Initiative, World Health Organisation said, “The World Health Organisation estimates that approximately five million people die each year from tobacco use. If current trends continue, this figure will reach 10 million per year by 2030, with 70 percent of those deaths occurring in developing countries like India. WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the international tobacco treaty is a major step forward in the worldwide battle against the death and disease caused by tobacco and Parties to the treaty are currently developing Guidelines to implement effective packaging measures in their countries . It is our hope that India, which has been very proactive in formulating and ratifying FCTC, would approach implementation rigorously.”

Pictorial warnings have proved to be highly effective in reducing the percentage of tobacco usage in countries like Canada, Australia, Belgium, Thailand, Brazil and the European Union where usage has dropped on an average by 1per cent per annum post implementation. In India, a country where the death toll due to tobacco related diseases spirals up to 1 million every year, the health burden on the economy is immense amounting conservatively to Rs 310 million. The gradual reduction in consumption spanning over decades and offset by increases in absolute number of smokers resulting from increasing population provides ample opportunities for planned rehabilitation of those who may be completely dependent on tobacco for their livelihood.

Source: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Tobacco-The-serial-killer/266766/