Last puff

The vivacious "Made for Each Other" couple may vanish from highway hoardings, if the statement made on May 31 marking World No-Tobacco day, by the Union minister of state for health C Silvera, "to discourage" the use of tobacco, comes true. Explaining the move to introduce such a bill, director general of health services, A K Mukherjee says that "a comprehensive anti-tobacco legislation" will provide for a complete ban on advertisement and sale of tobacco products near educational and healthcare institutions.

"Smoking is the single largest preventable factor in premature death, disability and disease," says Uton Muchtar Rafei, regional director for Southeast Asia, World Health Organization (who).

Worldwide tobacco use results in a net loss of us $200 billion a year; half of this in developing countries. According to S K Das, a public health expert with the West Bengal government, the Indian loss figure would be Rs 42,000 crores a year. Compared to this staggering figure, the tobacco industry's claims on lining the treasury become meaningless, points out Das.

So far, the Indian anti-tobacco legislations, formulated on lines of the Western laws, have not been stringent. The "Cigarette Act" of 1975 is not applicable to cigars, bidis and chewing tobacco.

But, even as the international pressure increases, the tobacco product manufacturers are coming up with innovative campaigns to counter the health lobby. For instance, at the New Delhi Computerised Reservation Centre, in a series of neon signboards, the "No Smoking" warning is followed by the line "Not even Wills".

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