ONE of the most amusing news items thatappeared in almost every leading newspaper of November 14, 1995, was aboutthe goings on at the conference of theInternational Tobacco Growers' Association (ITGA) held in Bangalore. TheHindu said that Karnataka chief minister,H D Deve Gowda, "did not subscribe tothe popular notion that tobacco was thesole cause of cancer, tuberculosis andother diseases". The rrGA president, HainsGraslow, said that the World HealthOrganization (WHO) figures on tobacco-related deaths were not realistic. The conference seemed targetted at dissuading theCentral government from going aheadwith the ban on tobacco, as it would affectmore than 45 lakh people directly or indirectly, for whom this was the main sourceof livelihood.
Since the '50s, there has been sufficient scientific evidence to evaluate healthrisks due to cigarette smoking. In 1962,the Royal College of Physicians, London,reported, "Cigarette smoking is a cause oflung cancer and bronchitis and variousother less common diseases." Subsequently, a mammoth, 150,000-words report was released in1964 in the us by the surgeon general's advisory committee onsmoking and health. The principal judgement was, "Cigarettesmoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance in the us towarrant appropriate remedial action".
By 1965, the us government made it compulsory for eachcigarette packet to carry- a label stating the health hazard. In1971, the Federal government banned cigarette advertising onradio and television. By this time, at least 80 per cent of professional health and research organisations, medical societies andgovernment health agencies in the us and other countries concluded that cigarette smoking is an important health hazard.Radio andtelevision bans on tobacco-related advertisementswere already in practice in Britain (1965) and Italy (1962). Ourcountry too has the ban, as well as the mandatory warning inevery packet. Tobacco industry itself has some kind of self-censorship in advertising and ad messages are surrogate, not direct.
Young people are the industry's new-customers. In 1992 alone, the industryspent more than us $5.2 billion on advertising; only the automobile industry spendsmore on advertising in the us. Sportingevents offer the biggest exposures, besidesbill-boards, consumer items like hats, T-shirts, jackets or lighters. Studies show thattobacco advertising and promotion areespecially effective with young people.
Robert F Perry, MD, Pee Lee Clinic,Wilmington, North Carolina,.says, "Realprogress will occur only when we enact lawsthat treat the marketing of tobacco products to young people as the felony of childabuse." A news item in the September 23,1995 issue of the British Medical Journalsays that the Olympic Games will bantobacco advertising. A smoke-free policywas in force at the Games in 1992, but waslargely ignored.
Thus, we have two distinct scenarios.One demonstrates an utmost concernabout health risks, with emphasis on measures to control the growing number ofyoung addicts.'The other is of unabashedadvertising and promotional efforts by theindustry. In India, notwithstanding the banon radio and television advertisements,there appears to be very little anxiety and almost negligibleefforts towards deaddiction and prevention of growth of newaddicts among youngsters.
No doubt, more and more areas are now-a-days beingdeclared 'no-smoking zones'. However, covert encouragementto tobacco use is evident. What else is the Wills World Cup allabout? These four white letters on a red band are omnipresent.One sees them thousands of times in the field or on the television sets. Otherwise so innocuous, it is an extremely sophisticated but penetrating advertisement and promotional gimmickfor smoking and the use of tobacco.
The Wills World Cup, 1996, is expected to be the mostexpensive, most widely covered, and the most watched worldcup ever (estimated audience 1.5 billion), reports one news-magazine. With all this regular marketing blitzkrieg on, canparents, teachers, elders and counsellors have the moralcourage and.strength to ask youngsters not to smoke?