NEW DELHI: Starting June 1 next year, tobacco packaging will feature more disturbing warnings, with manufacturers required to display an image of a person’s face suffering from end-stage oral cancer, along with the textual message, “Tobacco causes painful death.” Additionally, the national tobacco quit line services number must also be included, as stated in a notification from the health ministry.
While graphic pictorial warnings have been a feature on cigarette packs for years, the new changes are intended to make them more viscerally unsettling. The government rotates the images on tobacco product packaging every two years to avoid viewer fatigue from seeing the same warning repeatedly.
India has over 280 million tobacco users, and it is estimated that tobacco-related diseases claim the lives of around 1.3 million people annually. A 2021 study published in Journal Tobacco Use Insights revealed that nearly 12% of young people aged 15 to 24 use tobacco. The prevalence of smokeless tobacco and smoking in this age group stands at 10.9% and 5%, respectively, with 2% reporting dual usage.
