Cigarette manufacturers may soon have another mandate to “benefit” smokers. Besides the statutory warning and other relevant details, the packets will have to specify “best before” or “expiry” details, on the lines of other edible and consumable items, including medicines.

Sources in the Bureau of India Standards (BIS) said that research is ongoing on the subject as this is the long pending demand of tobacco and gutkha associations and even by the consumers.

“The best before/expiry dates of cigarette packets may be introduced soon and we believe this will in a way also counter fake manufacturing of the cigarettes. Our research team have also found that certain products had traces of fungus which when inhaled is more harmful,” said BIS sources.

Sources clarified that good quality cigarettes are manufactured after taking full precautions in processing of the tobacco to avoid any fungal growth but research has found that it goes stale after a certain period. Illicit cigarettes are on the rise and smoking them impacts the health more.

“Cigarettes don’t really expire, they go stale. When a cigarette goes stale it has lost its moisture in the tobacco and tastes differently. Commercial cigarettes usually don’t go stale unless the pack has been opened and it usually takes about two days. Usually, people look for an expiration date to make sure something won’t taste bad, smell bad, or be bad for your health. Hence, work is on to incorporate expiration schedule or the best before date on the cigarette packs which will be in the interest of consumers as well as manufacturers,” the sources said.

As per the existing BIS norms, a cigarette packet has to specify manufacturer details, month and year of production, length and price besides a toll free call centre and email address.

“A pictorial danger sign was incorporated on tobacco products on the directions of the Supreme Court a few years ago and expiration date will be the new addition,” the sources said.

India ranks fifth, jointly with Hong Kong and Thailand, in terms of the largest pictorial warning on cigarette packs with 85 per cent of both sides of the packets covered, according to an international cancer society report.

The report found that 118 countries and territories now require pictorial health warnings on cigarette packages, up from 100 in 2016.

A data from World Health Organization (WHO) shows that tobacco use kills nearly six million people in a year. The situation is equally bad in India with estimated number of tobacco users being 274.9 million as per Global Adult Tobacco Survey India (GATS). This includes 163.7 million users of smokeless tobacco, 68.9 million smokers and 42.3 million users of both smoking and smokeless tobacco.

“Cigarettes often come with best before information. While idea of an expiry date would be fine, its compliance is something that regulatory and enforcement agencies will have to deal with. We sincerely hope, as and when this comes into effect, it does take care of the growing menace of the illicit cigarettes in the Indian market. Over the years, India has emerged as world’s 4th largest market for illegal cigarettes and besides causing huge

revenue losses to the Government, it also poses severe risks to national security as illicit trade is known to fund organised crime, across the world,” said RS Tiwari of Centre for Public Awareness that works on awareness on illicit cigarettes.

He also added that as per a World Bank Report, illicit cigarettes have severe implications on the health of the nation as the “availability of inexpensive illicit cigarettes increases the likelihood of young people developing addiction — particularly where illicit imports “glamorise” smoking through aspirational brands.”