Sign language
About time we took a harder line on tobacco, and pictorial warnings are only a start
About time we took a harder line on tobacco, and pictorial warnings are only a start
Despite the March 2009 decision that tobacco products would come with grim pictorial warnings, India is yet to get going on the plan. Earlier pictures of scorpions and blackened lungs were rejected as being too vague, but the health ministrys sharper, hard-hitting images were shot down by a group of ministers as too harsh, even as tobacco manufacturers protested the ambiguous messaging. Now, the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity has drafted another set of warnings. The logic is, only images can chase out images, and it will take an onslaught of off-putting pictures to stamp out the associations of empowerment, nonchalance and grown-up glamour that cigarettes once evoked.
In 2008, 160 nations pledged to institute pictorial warnings after a WHO convention. They now have punishing strictures that lay down how much of the cartons surface should be covered with the warning, that forbids any deceptive word that suggests that the habit is light, mild or low-tar. These pictures of rotting teeth and suppurating tumours are meant to make it very clear that smoking is not badass, its just bad. Of course, studies have questioned the efficacy of these visual campaigns, and there are clear limits to what cultural vilification can achieve. Its unlikely that they will make hardened smokers snap out of their denial because they are physically addicted to nicotine, not just mentally in thrall to it. But these warnings can have a positive impact on casual smokers, and dissuade the undecided others.
In India, the more insidious danger is chewing tobacco, which has largely escaped the regulatory glare even though 163.7 million out of Indias 274.9 million tobacco users are not smokers. Small sachets of fragrant gutka are sold as an inoffensive stimulant, and consumed by men and women, even children. The health ministry plans to extend these warnings to smokeless tobacco as well. Worldwide, a harsh regime of prohibitive taxes and a visual campaign of tobacco-deterrence have worked in tandem Australia recently decided to drop all colour and branding logos from cigarette packs in future, and hiked taxes. Hopefully, India will take a cue.