Indore: IMA, tobacco victims welcome warnings by govt

Indore: Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Voice of Tobacco Victims (VoTV) on Thursday welcomed the centre’s directive issued to manufacturers of tobacco products to print toll free ‘Quitline’ number on their packets. The government has also directed to replace pictorial warnings on packets with new pictorial series it has issued. The directive will come into force from September 1, 2018.

National chairman of IMA’s Tobacco Control Committee Dr Dilip Acharya said existing pictorial warnings printed on packets of tobacco products are ineffective. “The new series will appeal to people more,” Dr Acharya told Free Press. At present, pictorial warnings cover 85% of the total package space.

According to Dr Acharya, the new pictorial warnings will carry slogans like ‘Tobacco causes painful death’ and ‘Tobacco causes cancer’. At present, packets carry slogan,‘Tobacco consumption is injurious to health.’

Over 50,000 representations were sent to union health ministry. They insisted on carrying pictorial warnings on packets of tobacco products. Those who sent representatives included advocates, students, doctors, cancer patients, bidi workers’ unions, women and youth groups, national and international public health experts. Dr Acharya who is also the National Cancer Society secretary said tobacco related diseases kill about 2,500 Indians daily and over 10 lakh Indians every year.”