Tobacco warning must on 85% pack area, WHO tells India

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 2

With the government dragging its feet on implementing harsher anti-tobacco warnings on packages, the WHO has urged the Ministry of Health to roll its earlier decision to cover 85% pack area with stricter warnings.

WHO Representative to India Nata Menabde on Friday said India was yet not fully compliant with the UN Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which needs at least 50% area on both sides of the tobacco pack to be covered with health warnings depicting the adverse effects of tobacco use.

“India is not fully FCTC complaint as the tobacco pack warnings currently occupy only 40% of the principal display on one side of the pack. Given the heavy public health and economic costs to the country due to tobacco consumption, WHO strongly supports early implementation of the October 2014 notification for increasing the size of tobacco pack warnings,” Menabde said.

On March 25, WHO Director General Margaret Chan had personally written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulating him for India’s decision to implement warnings on 85 per cent display area of tobacco packs.

She had then said India would — from April 1, 2015 — join the league of countries like Nepal, Pakistan and Thailand that have decided to implement larger anti-tobacco warnings. The Health Ministry, however, never rolled those warnings with the Committee on Subordinate Legislations asking it to hold detailed deliberations on the matter with stakeholders such as ‘’bidi’’ manufacturers.