In a giant leap from its earlier ranking of 136 in 2014 and 123 in 2012, India is now ranked third among the 205 countries in terms of the largest pictorial health warnings on tobacco packages in 2016.
The achievement follows the Union Health Ministry’s move to impose 85 per cent increase on the size of pictorial warning on all tobacco products manufactured in the country from April this year.
Nepal with the largest warning requirements in the world at 90 per cent of the package front and back shared the top rank while India and Thailand are tied for third, with 85 per cent pictorial warnings, as per the Cigarette Package Health Warnings International Status Report by Canadian Cancer Society.
The report was released on Thursday at the ongoing six-day 7th session of the CoP to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) which begin from November 7 at Greater Noida.
The report ranks 205 countries and territories on the size of their health warnings on cigarette packages and lists countries and territories that require graphic picture warnings.
The report shows a significant global momentum toward plain packaging with 4 countries requiring plain packs and 14 working on it. The other countries on the top 10 list included Australia, Sri lanka, Uruguay, Brunei, Canada, laos and Myanmar.
In India, It was a bench of Supreme Court Judges PC Ghose and Amitava Roy who had paved way for the larger pictorial warning from 40 per cent to 80 per cent on tobacco products as tobacco manufacturers were reluctant to comply with the central government order. The WHO has been favouring bigger health warning labels on tobacco products as the most cost-effective tool for educating smokers and non-smokers alike about the health risks of tobacco use.
According to Rob Cunningham, Senior Policy Analyst, Canadian Cancer Society, “India has demonstrated global leadership by implementing 85 per cent pictorial warnings on all tobacco packages despite fierce opposition from the tobacco industry.”