M A I N   N E W S

Tobacco firms lobbied to defer stricter pictoral warnings
Aditi Tandon/TNS

New Delhi, December 14
In a shocking revelation, it has been learnt that top tobacco companies and organisations lobbied with the Ministry of Health to delay the implementation (from December 1 this year) of stricter pictorial warnings on tobacco products. New warnings featuring a cancer-stricken mouth were to replace the image of a scorpion on the tobacco products from December 1. The Union Cabinet last week deferred the stricter warnings by a year.

Not just that, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, also a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee, forwarded to the Health Ministry a March 25, 2010, representation against the tobacco warnings which he had received from Pan Shops Owners Association of India. The association comprises retailers of cigarettes, bidis, chewing tobacco and beetle leaf.

On March 31 this year, Moily forwarded the said representation on his AICC letter head to Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, saying, “I am forwarding the presentation regarding a new health warning for action as appropriate”.

In the letter to Moily, association president R Sankar Rao argued against pictorial warnings in the light of the first such warnings (a scorpion) were issued on tobacco products. “Due to graphic tobacco warnings, our retailers have seen a decline in the business of our members. About 60 to 70 per cent of the business of these shopkeepers comes from tobacco products but the impact has been felt beyond just these products as customers are not visiting these outlets. We sincerely hope you will give due consideration to the voice of aam aadmi, that is to defer the introduction of the new health warnings.”

The Health Ministry also admits to have received anti-pictorial warning representations from leading tobacco giants like the ITC, Tobacco Institute of India, Zafrani Zarda, Reliable Cigarettes and Tobacco Industry, All India Bidi Industry Federation and Aurangabad Bidi Merchants’ Association.

The new pictorial health warnings showing a cancer stricken mouth were to be implemented across India from December 1, a year after the first warning was implemented. As per the law on tobacco and packaging rules, yearly rotation of warnings to make them stricter is necessary and the Government even gave this assurance to the Supreme Court in a related case. But last week, the Cabinet diluted the provisions, allowing deferment of warnings by a year.

Anti-tobacco group Health for Millions Trust has now moved the SC against the Government violating its own commitment to suit business interest of certain tobacco lobbies. On May 6, last the Government told the SC that the 2008 anti-tobacco Rules would be enforced on May 31, 2009. The pictorial warnings under the Rules included a “diseased lungs”.

Not just that, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, also a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee, forwarded to the Health Ministry a March 25, 2010 representation against the tobacco warnings which he had received from Pan Shops Owners Association of India. The Association comprises retailers of cigarettes, bidis, chewing tobacco and beetle leaf.

On March 31, Moily forwarded the said representation on his AICC letter head to Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, saying, “I am forwarding the presentation regarding a new health warning for action as appropriate”.

In the letter to Moily, Association President R Sankar Rao argued against pictorial warnings in the light of the first such warnings were issued on tobacco products. “Due to graphic tobacco warnings, our retailers have seen declines in the business of our members. About 70 per cent business of these shopkeepers comes from tobacco products but the impact has been felt beyond just these products as customers are not visiting these outlets. We hope you will give due consideration to the voice of aam aadmi, that is to defer the introduction of the new health warnings.”

The Health Ministry also admits to have received anti-pictorial warning representations from tobacco giants like the ITC and Tobacco Institute of India.

Anti-tobacco group Health for Millions Trust has now moved the SC against the Government violating its own commitment to suit business interest of certain tobacco lobbies.