Don’t put off tobacco warnings

The ill effects of tobacco use have been scientifically documented. So, to move ahead and implement the fuller recommendations of the international tobacco control treaty was the indicated course. India should enforce the rule that at least 50 per cent of the packing of tobacco products, like cigarette packets, should be covered with pictorial warnings that convey the message of the substance being harmful. The deadline of April 1 has been given a miss now and delays are bound to be interminable before the pictorials get bigger and more graphic to try and dissuade the emerging generation from getting addicted to a substance that is known to be the attributable cause of many cancers.

The human side of the argument — that the livelihoods of thousands of tobacco farmers will be hit — is not to be ignored. To base the argument for more deliberations on the count that there is no clear Indian research into the deleterious health effects of cancer, as the chairman of the parliamentary committee, Dilip K. Gandhi, has done, is to question the vast international scientific base of studies which shows that tobacco is carcinogenic. While some countries are moving ahead to introduce plain packaging that will carry only the pictorial and text warnings, and not the brand names, we are still dragging our feet in doing the right thing. Powerful tobacco lobbies will be working overtime to stave off the threats to their multi- billion- dollar industry. The authorities must be firm in spreading the message against addictive substance abuse, of which smoking is probably the most harmful.