After May 31, look before you light up

By the end of May smokers are going to find it difficult to find a safe place to smoke.

By the end of May smokers are going to find it difficult to find a safe place to smoke. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is finalising the new rules for restricting smoking in public places and proposes to publicise the same before No Tobacco Day on May 31.

After the new rules comes into force, smokers will have only 8220;three exceptional places to smoke8221;8212;hotels, 30-seater restaurants and airports. However, these places will also need to have designated, enclosed smoking areas. As a first step, all healthcare facilities, public buildings and transport vehicles, private workplaces, restaurants and bars would be made no-cigarette zones.

In fact, smoking at home will also become a crime. If one wishes to, he/she will have to take permission from the others there 8212; this also includes the domestic help. 8220;Union health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss is very keen to come out with the new 8220;stringent8221; rules before May 31. The whole idea is to make it difficult for the people to smoke and make the life of passive smokers a little bit easy,8221; said a senior official in the ministry.

Officials said there was a need to strictly enforce the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution Act, 2003 as more people were reportedly taking up smoking.

The ministry has also asked the states to empower more people to enforce the new rules. 8220;So far, smokers got away lightly, but with more people enforcing the rules, they will be left with no option but to quit,8221; said the official. The ministry has asked the state Government to empower restauranteurs, hoteliers, conductors and teachers to fine the violaters.

There could be surprise checks in restaurants and hotels with lenient managers being penalised. 8220;The legal issues have been looked into and the minister will soon make an announcement,8221; the official added. The Government is also planning to increase the fine on offenders to Rs 5,000.

As of now, only Chandigarh can be considered a smoke-free city, while New Delhi and Chennai are likely to follow in its footsteps.

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Recently, the minister had recommended the formulation of a comprehensive Tobacco Control Policy and its effective implementation.

Smoky future

8226; According to a nationally representative case study, smoking will kill 10 lakh people in the country annually from 2010.

8226; Consumption of tobacco in any form will be the primary cause behind one in five of all male deaths and one in 20 of all female deaths

8226; Nearly 70 per cent of these one million deaths 8212; seven lakh people 8212; will die young and in their prime.

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8226; Over half of the tobacco deaths will occur in illiterate men or women, with 80 per cent of them residing in rural India.

8226; While men who smoke cigarettes will lose over 10 years of life, those who smoke bidis will lose about six years.

8226; Women bidi smokers, on the other hand, will lose eight years of their productive life.