US bans Indian beedis after CBS expose

A detention order prevents a product from being marketed in the US.The CBS film showed plenty of raw footage of children toiling for up to 12 hours in abject conditions. The film also showed successful efforts by some agencies and Indian activists to free the children from bonded labour.One freed pre-teen is asked by the CBS reporter what he intends to do now with his freedom. 8220;Study,8221; he replies touchingly.

Although Beedis have been around in the US for over a decade, they have become hugely popular among urban youth in recent months after a crackdown on sale of cigarettes to the underaged. Beedi sales in the US are less stringently regulated than laws governing sale of cigarettes.

The fad has also been fired up by trendy marketing that has seen beedies being sold now in all-American, candy-like flavors: chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.

More recently, with rising popularity and increasing demand, they are also available in exotic flavours like grape, cinnamon, watermelon, menthol, black licorice, wild cherry, and mandarin orange.

No accurate figures are available about the extent of beedi imports from India because they come under the overall cigarette rubric and are dumped under different tariff codes. But according to one report, estimates by the Tobacco Merchants Association, an international trade group, puts imports from India in 1998 at about 448 million pieces valued at less than 5 million.

However, various import agencies and vendors confirm that there is spectacular rise in the popularity of beedies. Common brands available in the US include Darshan, Shivsagar, Mangalore Ganesh and Ranvir.

Among the leading importers are Kretek International, Colorado-based Quintin USA Inc. and California-based Smokers Choice. Kretek is selling about 300,000 cartons of bidis each year, 10 times as many as three years ago. The beedies are typically priced at around 2 for a packet of 20.

One web site selling Ganesh beedis describes it as 8220;a special blend of tobaccos and herbs, hand wrapped in a tendu leaf and tied with a string. Each cone and brick is adorned with the well-known Hindu deity Ganesh, the god of wisdom and prudence.8221;

The raging fad is beginning to worry public health officials because new research that backs several Indian studies shows that smoke from beedis, which are unfiltered, has about three times as much nicotine and carbon monoxide and five times as much tar as smoke from regular filtered cigarettes.