Smoke in the wind

According to a new report released by WHO,on the global tobacco epidemic 2011,hard-hitting anti-tobacco advertisements and graphic pack warnings especially those that include pictures reduce the number of children who begin smoking.

Anti-tobacco ads and graphic warnings against its use have been successful worldwide,but in India,the warnings have not had the desired effect,say experts

According to a new report released by WHO,on the global tobacco epidemic 2011,hard-hitting anti-tobacco advertisements and graphic pack warnings especially those that include pictures reduce the number of children who begin smoking and increase the number of smokers who quit. The report is the third in a series of periodic reports about the extent and character of the epidemic and measures to stop tobacco usage. Experts with the Indian task force on tobacco control have now urgently called for stricter warnings on cigarette packets. The report presents the latest global and country data on the prevalence of tobacco use and has a particular focus on the importance of large,graphic health warnings on tobacco packages and of anti-tobacco mass media campaigns.More than one billion people in 19 countries are now covered by laws requiring large,graphic health warnings on packages of tobacco,nearly double the number of two years ago,when only about 547 million people were covered in 16 countries,WHO reported in its third periodic report on the global tobacco epidemic. Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi,cancer surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital and a global cancer ambassador told The Indian Express that in India there are an approximately 27 crore people using tobacco and it is estimated that 9 crore will die prematurely because of its addiction.

Studies carried out after the implementation of pictorial package warnings in Brazil,Canada,Singapore and Thailand have shown that pictorial warnings significantly increase people’s awareness of the harms of tobacco use. The WHO report further points out that only 19 countries,representing 15 per cent of the world’s population,meet the best practice for pictorial warnings,which includes the warnings in the local language and cover an average of at least half of the front and back of cigarette packs. No low-income country meets this best-practice level.

While India has had pictorial warnings since 2009,they are not really effective, says Dr Monika Arora,in charge of health promotion and tobacco control at Public Health Foundation of India. Indian pictorial warnings are extremely weak for smoking products like cigarettes. Recently HRIDAY (Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth) revealed a startling link between depiction of tobacco use in Bollywood films and its influence on Indian adolescents. This is a first of its kind study in India which has attempted to measure the level of influence of tobacco use in Indian films on school students. According to the study which was published in the British Medical Journal on July 5,the odds of using tobacco once or more among students who were highly exposed to tobacco use occurrences in Bollywood films was more than twice as compared to those with low exposure, says Arora.

This year,the tobacco epidemic will kill an estimated 60 lakh people. More than 50 lakh of them will be users and ex-users of smoked and smokeless tobacco and more than 6 lakh will be non-smokers who were exposed to tobacco smoke. By 2030,the epidemic could kill 80 lakh people.

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Smoke in the wind

According to a new report released by WHO,on the global tobacco epidemic 2011,hard-hitting anti-tobacco advertisements and graphic pack warnings  especially those that include pictures  reduce the number of children who begin smoking.

According to a new report released by WHO,on the global tobacco epidemic 2011,hard-hitting anti-tobacco advertisements and graphic pack warnings especially those that include pictures reduce the number of children who begin smoking.