With existing tobacco-related legislation failing to curb the menace, health experts and celebrities on Tuesday sought to make the COTPA law more stringent to tighten the noose around tobacco manufacturers and prevent them from enticing the youth and kids with lucrative advertisements and promotional activities.
The Government has proposed amendments in the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Act 2003 (COTPA) laws including a ban on Point of Sale (any location where tobacco products are advertised, displayed, and purchased) and designated smoking areas in restaurants, hotels, and airports, etc. Renowned wrestler and actor Sangram Singh said there has been alarming evidence of widespread advertising and promotional activities that influences children to start smoking and potentially develop the habit of a lifetime addiction that could kill them.
He expressed concern that despite the ban on tobacco advertisements, the industry is spending a hefty amount on the promotion of such items by adopting various marketing tactics. "They eye youth as their probable client to turn them into tobacco-addicted youth. I request the government that proposed amendments in COTPA, particularly ban on POS and prohibiting DSAs be given go ahead at the earliest," he said at an event held here on the eve of World No Tobacco Day. On the occasion, journalists Archana Jyoti from The Pioneer, Nitendra Singh from DD News, and Rajiv Kumar Mishra from CNN News18 were also conferred with an award for creating awareness in the sector through media.
Earlier, noted epidemiologist Chandrakant Lahariya said, “Children and non-tobacco users too visit the POS and are at risk of getting addicted. Giving relaxation on POS is like inviting a tobacco pandemic.”
He cited various studies showing how tobacco users have become vulnerable to deadly infection during the pandemic. "We are losing 1.3 million Indians every year to tobacco-related diseases. Apart from cancer, tobacco is also a major cause of a wide range of chronic and life-threatening conditions like lung diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and strokes to name a few," he said, supporting the demand to ban DSA, which according to him were a health risk to non-smokers. Dr. Uma Kumar, HOD of Rheumatology, AIIMS, New Delhi, said tobacco companies that make products like cigarettes and gutkha are specifically targeting teenagers and kids. "They prominently display their advertisements near schools and colleges so that they are visible to the impressionable minds. Tobacco is a burden on the environment also as its cultivation is said to infertile the land," she said at the event organized by The Tobacco-Free India, a civic rights platform.
Dr Kumar also highlighted the harms of passive smoking to non-smokers. "Doing away with Designated Smoking Areas (DSA) can be a game-changer in the direction of the health of the vulnerable population and making India's public places 100 per cent smoke-free.”
Communication expert Neelkanth Bakshi also touched upon various anti-tobacco measures taken by the Centre and hoped that the government will certainly sooner or later come out with tight laws to curb the menace caused by these cancer-causing products.