Human Lives and Health Warning Labels

Many smokers and non-smokers are not agreed with the new legislation about pictorial warnings. Researchers showed in a study that Indians also disagree with Government decision to printed pictorial warnings on tobacco packages. But this new legislation will be very welcomed especially in India, because according to statistics by the next year smoking will cause about 930,000 adult deaths each year in India, up from 700,000 deaths per year in 2004.

A very large number of health warnings labels on packets of cheap cigarettes and bidis are in India, said researchers. An election conducted by health research institute Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health and Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) across four metropolises of India notified that 99 percent of the respondents support larger, more effective pictorial warnings on all tobacco products.

The survey was conducted in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai and covered 1,026 respondents between the age group of 15-64 distributed evenly across the metropolitans. The respondents were chosen from the middle and lower-middle class sections. The poll also showed a near unanimous opinion on the issue of spreading health warnings that are currently carried on packets of marlboro cigarettes to those of bidis.

After this survey was found that ninety eight percent of those who voted wanted the government to require health warning labels on packs of bidis as they do on cigarettes. 100 percent of votes were in Mumbai, 97 percent in Delhi and 98 percent each in Chennai and Kolkata agreeing that the government should require a health warning label on packs of bidis.

Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act, and the Ministry of Health had planned to implement pictorial warnings on all tobacco products including ’bidis’ even in February, 2007. But this legislation was not approved till now.