Can India be smoke free by 2025?
Hyderabad: In the global race to eliminate smoking, New Zealand has taken a long leap with its Smokefree 2025 goal, which includes the innovative move to continually raise the age at which people can buy cigarettes. From 2027, the legal age to purchase tobacco would rise year-on-year from the current 18. This means that children […]
Updated On - 15 December 2021, 06:26 PM
Hyderabad: In the global race to eliminate smoking, New Zealand has taken a long leap with its Smokefree 2025 goal, which includes the innovative move to continually raise the age at which people can buy cigarettes.
From 2027, the legal age to purchase tobacco would rise year-on-year from the current 18. This means that children now aged 13 and below face a lifetime ban on legally buying tobacco in New Zealand.
In addition, the nicotine level in cigarettes will be capped to a very minimal quantity, which means a person would have to smoke 20 ultra-low nicotine cigarettes to get the amount of nicotine that one gets from one cigarette currently.
Where does India stand?
India has been ranked 44th in the list of countries having the most tobacco consumption. However, with India being a party to the World Health Organisation framework convention on tobacco control in 2004, the country is taking measures with an aim to reduce the use of tobacco products in the country.
In the same year, the Government of India enacted its comprehensive tobacco control law – the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Act 2003 (COTPA 2003) to reduce tobacco use. The Act included prohibition of smoking in public places, prohibition of advertisement of cigarettes and other tobacco products, prohibition of sale of cigarettes or other tobacco products to anyone below the age of 18 years, and prohibition on trade and commerce in production, supply, and distribution of cigarettes and other tobacco products.
Smoking is now permitted only in designated separate smoking areas in airports, restaurants, bars, pubs and enclosed workplaces.
Even then, implementation of the law is still a question.
The government in 2016 added pictorial warnings as means of awareness on cigarette packaging, apart from a tax increase of 28 percent in 2017, while categorising cigarettes as a luxury item.
According to a WHO survey, such measures have resulted in a decrease in smoking. In 2010, WHO estimated that about 24 per cent of men and about 3 per cent women smoked in India. This is projected to be 15 per cent for men and 1 per cent for women by 2025.
Implementation in Telangana
Although the State government has imposed fines on public smoking and have regulated sale of foreign cigarettes in the city, implementation does not seem to be at par, points out Naga Sirisha, member, Voluntary Health Association in India.
“There is a rule that there should not be any sale of tobacco products in a radius of 100 metres around educational institutions. But we still find many shops selling cigarettes within the radius,” says Naga Sirisha.
Although the government has a role to play in making strict laws on availability and consumption of cigarettes and tobacco products, it is the individual who has to act, says Sunil Narayanan, a member of the Narcotics Anonymous group in the city.
City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar feels the battle against tobacco addiction has to start from home.
“Every individual, every child should take an initiative to stand against consumption of tobacco and smoking. There has to be maximum awareness on ill effects of smoking. There is awareness among the people of Telangana and I have personally witnessed many quitting smoking in recent times. Soon, with the same enthusiasm we can also legally ban consumption in the future,” he adds.
Ill effects of smoking
Tobacco is the only legal drug that kills many of its users when used exactly as intended by manufacturers. Recently, WHO estimated that tobacco use is currently responsible for the death of about six million people across the world each year with many of these deaths occurring prematurely. This total includes about 6,00,000 people who are also estimated to die from the effects of passive smoking.
In addition, tobacco smoking is also associated with an increased risk of cancers and cardiovascular diseases.
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