Tobacco and Public Health - TCSC Indonesia

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THE EPIDEMIC IN INDIA
were reinforced by documentaries, slides, posters, exhibitions, folk-dramas, radio messages,
and newspaper articles (Gupta et al. 1986). The educational intervention was
helpful in reducing tobacco use and in significantly increasing quit rates in two areas
assessed after five and ten years of follow up (9% and 14.3% in Ernakulam and 17%
and 18.4% in Srikakulam) (Gupta et al. 1992).
In another intervention study conducted in Karnataka, after a five-year interval, quit
rates in men and women respectively were 26.5% and 36.7% (Anantha et al. 1995).
Legislation
From April 1976, a warning on cigarette packets and advertisements (‘Cigarette smoking
is injurious to health’) was made mandatory under the Cigarette (Regulation of
Production, Supply & Distribution) Act of 1975. The advertising of tobacco products
was prohibited in government-controlled electronic media (television and radio) and
government publications. In 1990, the Government of India issued an Executive Order
prohibiting smoking in select public places like hospitals, educational institutions,
domestic flights, air-conditioned trains and buses and suburban trains (Luthra et al.
1992). In June 1999, Indian Railways, operating under the Government of India,
banned the sale of tobacco on railway platforms. Two small states, Delhi and Goa,
promulgated their own tobacco control laws banning outdoor tobacco advertisements
and smoking in public places.
It is well known that raising the price of items like alcohol and tobacco decreases
their consumption. Over eighty per cent of total tobacco excise revenue in India comes
from cigarettes. From early 1990s, bidis have begun to be taxed albeit at very low level.
Many smokeless tobacco products, which are becoming increasingly popular, are taxed
at a low level but evasion is rampant. There is a great scope to control tobacco use
through higher taxation.
Several litigations relating to tobacco control have been filed by individuals and nongovernmental
organizations. The most successful one was filed in Kerala by a woman
who stated that she found it difficult to commute in a bus in which her co-passengers
smoked. As a result, in July 1999, the Kerala High Court imposed a ban on smoking in
public places. Several other litigations are pending on issues like sports sponsorship
and advertising campaigns by tobacco companies, and a case has been filed by a politician
in the Supreme Court requesting compensation for the hazardous effects
of tobacco on the health of citizens. As a consequence the Supreme Court issued a
directive banning smoking in enclosed public places.
As a result of a case filed in the Rajasthan High Court by a manufacturer of tobacco
tooth powder against an amendment to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, prohibiting
tobacco in dental care products, the Central Committee on Food Standards recommended
a ban on smokeless tobacco products. This has not been implemented but several
states have recently taken a major step in banning the sale, manufacture, and storage of
gutkha under Prevention of Food Adulteration Act as gutkha is classed as a food product.