NEW DELHI: Pictorial warnings on tobacco products will get grimmer as govt has decided that from June 1 next year manufacturers would display the front profile of the face of a person suffering from end-stage oral cancer and a textual warning – “Tobacco causes painful death”.
They will also have to display the national tobacco quit line services number, according to a notification issued by health ministry. Officials said though scary pictorial warnings have been around on cigarette packets for years, the changes are designed to make them viscerally disturbing.
Govt rotates pictorial warnings to be displayed on both sides of tobacco products every two years. Officials said the objective is to address the issue of fatigue one may develop looking at the same image for a long period.
India has more than 28 crore tobacco users. Every year, it is estimated that 13 lakh individuals die due to diseases or conditions attributable to tobacco-use. According to a study published in Journal Tobacco Use Insights in 2021, nearly12% young people in the age group of 15 to 24 years use tobacco in India. The prevalence of smoke and smokeless tobacco in the age group was found to be 5% and 10.9%, respectively, whereas 2% of respondents reported dual usage.