Good news: Scary images on cigarette packs must from Dec 1

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By - Kounteya Sinha | TNN - Timesofindia

 

New Delhi: Gory images of cancerous tumours, rotting teeth and diseased throats on cigarette packets will become mandatory from December 1. According to the revised Packaging and Labelling Rule 2007, which was notified by the health ministry to the tobacco industry on Tuesday, "the pictorial depiction of skull and crossbones as health warning has been removed and the pictorial representation of a dead body has been replaced". Nearly 50% of fresh packets will now have to carry warnings in local languages. According to an earlier directive of the Shimla High Court, the pictorial warnings were to be in place by October. But the health ministry asked for a twomonth extension as it had moved a bill in Parliament in August to amend Section 7(1) of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, which calls for compulsory skull and crossbones warning on cigarette packets. But political pressure made the Cabinet pass a legislation making the skull and crossbones sign optional. The new notification says, "All tobacco product packs including cigarettes, gutka and bidi produced/manufactured after December 1, 2007 will have to bear/depict specified pictorial health warnings." Health secretary Naresh Dayal said that some sections had problems with two of the warnings — the image of a dead body and the skull and crossbones sign. "We therefore replaced the image of a dead body. But because the skull and crossbones warning is specified in the anti-tobacco Act, we moved a bill in Parliament to amend it." Anybody who produces or manufactures cigarettes or tobacco products without the specified warning will face imprisonment upto two years or be fined Rs 5,000 or both. If the offence is committed for the second time, imprisonment will be extended to five years with a fine of Rs 10,000.