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| World Lung Foundation pats India for rigorous anti-tobacco mass media campaign | | | Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Mar 29 : Stressing on the need to further intensify anti-tobacco drive across the country, World Lung Foundation (WLF) has welcomed the anti-tobacco mass media campaign currently being aired on TV and radio channels in India. The public service advertisement campaign shows how exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS) causes stroke and heart attack.
Global Adult Tobacco Survey says that over half of adults in India are exposed to SHS at home and around 30 percent adults are exposed to SHS at work. The ad campaign, entitled Clinical, was developed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with technical and financial support from World Lung Foundation.
"Clinical campaign was filmed in India and its effectiveness was assessed in test screenings among Indian audiences. During this rigorous message-testing protocol, the campaign was found to be highly effective in communicating the harms of SHS, particularly on the heart," Voluntary Health Association of India (VHA) said in a statement.
Interestingly, the Clinical campaign was aired nationwide on March 3, 2015 and will run for four weeks. It is being broadcast in 17 languages on all major private television and radio channels and on the government's Lok Sabha channel in Hindi language.
"India continues to be consistent in delivering blunt warnings about the harms of tobacco. Millions of Indians suffer from health harms related to tobacco use, so our objective with this campaign is to warn people about the deadly dangers of smoking bidis and cigarettes as well as their harmful effects on those who are exposed to second-hand smoke.
We intend to continue to air graphic, hard-hitting ads such as Clinical to keep reminding people that they urgently need to quit smoking and to stop exposing others to second-hand smoke," said C K Mishra, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Dr. Nandita Murukutla, Country Director for India, WLF, said that with its policies of curbing tobacco marketing in films and television programs through anti-tobacco advertising, disclaimers and warning scrolls, India is now considered an example of global best practice in this aspect of tobacco control. She said that WLF is delighted to assist the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in developing anti-tobacco public service announcements like Clinical, to continue to support such policies.
Ironically, the government under pressure from various quarters is set to defer indefinitely the implementation of notification for increasing the size of pictorial warning on tobacco products beyondApril 1, 2015 when it was to come into force.
The deferment move comes in the wake of Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate Legislations (2014-15), headed by BJP MP Dilipkumar Mansukhhal Gandhi, examining the provisions of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 and "strongly" urging the government to keep on hold its proposal to increase the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco packets. |
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