NEW DELHI, MAY 4: Having struggled for over a year to introduce gory pictorial warnings on tobacco products, the Union Health Ministry has finally zeroed-in on “mild pictures” of “TB-affected lungs” and a “scorpion” to discourage smoking and tobacco use.

The Ministry had earlier shortlisted photographs of cancerous tumours, sick babies, rotting teeth and diseased throats for use on tobacco products. But the Group of Ministers (GoM) looking into the proposal to print pictorial warnings on tobacco products decided recently to adopt “softer visuals” to make them “more acceptable” to the public.

“The GoM decided to use refined pictures which would be more appropriate. Like scorpion depicts death but is definitely a soft picture and will be accepted without problems,” said a senior Ministry official.

“The pictures shortlisted earlier may gradually be used since we plan to change the pictorial warnings every year,” the official said.

As per the directive of the Himachal Pradesh High Court in Shimla, the tobacco industry was supposed to introduce the pictorial warnings by March 17. But the Ministry approached the court in January, seeking more time. Having decided on the new pictures, the Ministry has now filed an affidavit in the court, asking for an early order so that this can be introduced without further delay.

“These pictures have been found to be effective in other countries and we hope that it will work here as well,” the official said.

In the past one year, the deadline has been extended four times. The pictorial warnings were initially planned for February last year which was then deferred to June and subsequently to October and December last year. The matter has since then been in the court.

The pictorial warnings are to occupy 40 per cent of the packaging area and the health warnings are to be specified in English and regional languages. The proposal was intended to create awareness on the hazards of tobacco use. But with pressure mounting from the tobacco industry and political quarters, the proposal could never be implemented.

India is the world’s third largest producer and consumer of tobacco. Consumption of tobacco is among the leading causes of deaths in the country. A WHO study estimates that the proportion of tobacco-related deaths in India is set to rise from 1.4 per cent in 1990 to 13.3 per cent in 2020.