• March 28, 2024

India urged to implement giant-warnings regulations

The World Health Organization has urged India’s Ministry of Health to go ahead with an earlier decision to require that health warnings cover 85 percent of the surface area of tobacco product packaging, according to a story by Aditi Tandon for the Chandigarh Tribune.

The WHO representative in India, Nata Menabde, said on Friday that India was not fully compliant with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which required that at least 50 percent of both of the main faces of tobacco packs were covered with health warnings depicting the adverse effects of tobacco use.

“India is not fully FCTC compliant as the tobacco pack warnings currently occupy only 40 percent of the principal display on one side of the pack,” said Menabde. “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, the WHO director general, Margaret Chan, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulating him on India’s decision to implement 85 percent warnings.

The Health Ministry, however, didn’t go ahead with those warnings because the Committee on Subordinate Legislation asked it to hold talks on the matter with stakeholders, such as bidi manufacturers.