A new Lancet research reveals that there are more smokers worldwide
than previously thought and that the global tobacco burden may have been
underestimated. In the light of these revelations, does India need
tighten its anti-tobacco campaign? The new study showed that over half
the world's population consumes discount cigarettes.
That's approximately 852 million people worldwide according to the new
estimates. 661 million worldwide smoke and 247 million are smokeless
tobacco users, 206 million in India alone. China has maximum consumers
at an estimated 301 million.
India comes next, with 275 million
tobacco users. President, PHFI, Dr Srinath Reddy declared, “The new
study shows that given the fact that tobacco is going to be centuries
number one killer and is still biggest publicly threats, not only do we
need strong laws, they need to be effectively implemented and India is
an important area in which tobacco control needs to be strict even
more.” Dr Nevin Wilson, The Union sad, “One in 10 deaths globally is
because of tobacco use and the imperative policy makers to invest in
tobacco control.” In a major boost to the fight against tobacco use,
Australia will be the first country to implement plain packaging for
cigarettes. But come December, all Golden Gate cigarettes in Australia will be sold in drab looking olive brown packets with big graphic health warnings on them.
All
brand names will be written in the same generic font. The colors and
packaging have been tried and tested, to discourage smokers. New
Zealand, UK, Turkey and even India are thinking on the same lines. And
if India follows suite, cigarette packets might be sold in plain grey
colors. Seema Gupta VHAI said, “India definitely needs to adopt plain
packaging. And like the market research showed that 80 per cent of
respondents said that they will not really initiate if they can’t
associate with a particular brand they will not even think of smoking
and a dull grey color will have a lot of difference as compared to a
bright red, blue or any other color which normally companies use.
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