Pictorial warnings on tobacco packs from November 30

New Delhi, August 28: Having been deferred for more than a year now, pictorial warnings on the packaging of tobacco products will finally be introduced on November 30. The Union Health Ministry has been trying to implement this visual ‘deterrent’ to tobacco use for a while now, and on August 30 will issue a notification to the tobacco industry, to put the plan into practice within three months.

The visual warnings are to occupy 40 per cent of the packaging space and the health warnings are to be specified in English and other regional languages. The warnings will change every 12 months. While the warning “Smoking Kills” on cigarette and beedi products and “Tobacco Kills” on smokeless or chewing tobacco products will appear in white font on a red background; every specified health message will be in bold black font on a white background.

Due to mounting pressure from the tobacco industry and political quarters, the deadline for implementing these warnings had been extended four times.

Taking suo moto cognisance late last year, the court ordered the Health Ministry to introduce the pictorial warnings by March 17, but the ministry approached the court in January, seeking more time.

Meanwhile, the proposal saw various changes. Initially, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss wanted especially macabre pictures to feature on the packs - in the words of a senior official in the ministry, these included images of “cancerous tumours, rotting teeth and diseased throats”.

However, the tobacco industry raised vociferous objections to these rather morbid images, saying that this would affect their business. With political pressure also looming large, a GoM under External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was then formed to look into the matter. In March this year, the GOM decided to go with “mild pictures” to make them more acceptable to the public. Pictures of “TB-affected lungs” and a “scorpion” to discourage smoking and tobacco use have now been chosen.

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