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| VHAI, legislators disappointed as BJP MP stalls implementation of tobacco pictorial warnings | | | Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Mar 25: Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) and legislators have strongly objected to the reported creating of hurdles by a Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) Member of Parliament in the implementation of pictorial warnings covering 85 percent of the packages of tobacco products.
The VHAI higher ups and legislators have said that BJP MP from Ahmad Nagar, Dilip Gandhi, who is the chairman of the committee on subordinate legislation has recommended in its report to the Union Health Ministry that a medical board should first examine the health effects of tobacco on Indian population before going ahead with the decision of mandating pictorial warnings covering 85 percent of the packages of tobacco products.
"If this report is true, it is disappointing. The health hazards of tobacco are well established worldwide over decades. Tobacco consumption is extracting a severe toll on India, imposing health care costs of more than Rs 1 Lakh crore every year, and a million deaths. In the interest of our own country, we must not waver from the deadline for increasing pictorial warnings to 85 percent of packaged tobacco products, as well as consider making plain packaging mandatory," said Baijayant 'Jay' Panda, Lok Sabha MP.
Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, Executive Director, Voluntary Health Association of India said that it is clear that Gandhi has overstepped the mandate. There is no precedence, no provision in the framework of rules of procedure which obligates Ministry of Health to accept recommendations (that to on technical matters of public health significance). As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Health can very well reject the recommendations by giving reasons, considering it is an important matter of public health, she said.
"It is shocking that a senior MP is so poorly informed about the facts pertaining to harmful effects of Tobacco. Industry all over the world has admitted that their product is harmful therefore they agreed to adopt pack warning as part of their manufacturer liability. In fact, tobacco is the only consumer product that has no good use whatsoever apart of killing every third consumer. Tobacco is attributable cause of 50 percent cancers in India and majority of lung or heart diseases. It is appalling that Gandhi is challenging the recommendations of WHO, United Nations, UICC, CDC, NCI etc with regards to health effects of tobacco," said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, Professor, Head and Neck Surgeon Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.
Pertinently, Supreme Court of India in December 2010 had directed Ministry of Health to constitute an expert committee to study the harmful effects of tobacco. The committee submitted a damming report proving beyond doubt that tobacco is indeed very harmful. The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 (COTPA) was passed in the Parliament during Sushma Swaraj tenure as Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare under Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government in 2003. According to a health report submitted by the Ministry of Health in consultation with National Institute of Health and Family Welfare on the ill-effects of chewing tobacco, there are over 3095 chemical components in chewing tobacco products (including gutkha), among them 28 are proven carcinogen. |
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