SAARC nations reaffirm commitments on tobacco warning

Amid a row over increasing the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products, India and other SAARC nations today "reaffirmed" their commitments to ensure that such warnings cover 50 per cent or more of display area as recommended by a WHO Framework Convention.
According to the "Delhi Declaration" on public health challenges adopted at the 5th meeting of health ministers of SAARC nations here today, the countries have reaffirmed their commitments under the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
The reaffirmation of the commitment on tobacco control was one amongst a host of other agreements listed in the declaration. The WHO FCTC is the first international treaty negotiated under the auspices of WHO. It was adopted by the World Health Assembly on May 21, 2003 and came into force on February 27, 2005.

The FCTC was developed in response to globalisation of tobacco epidemic and is an evidence-based treaty reaffirming the right of all people to the highest standard of health.
One of the clauses in Part III (Measures relating to the reduction of demand for tobacco) of the WHO FCTC, requires countries to adopt "effective" measures to prohibit misleading tobacco packaging and labelling as well as ensure tobacco product packages carry large health warnings describing its harmful effects.
"...Ensure that such warnings cover 50 per cent or more, but not less than 30 per cent of principal display areas and that they are in the parties' principal language and ensure that packages contain prescribed information on the tobacco products' constituents and emissions," it said.

The reaffirmation comes in the backdrop of a controversy where a parliamentary panel examining the provisions of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 asking the government to hold its proposal to increase size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products from 40 per cent to 85 per cent.
Some members of the Committee of Subordinate Legislations, including its chairman BJP MP Dilip Gandhi, have created a row by suggesting that there was no connection between tobacco and cancer while another BJP member Shyama Charan Gupta who is also a 'beedi' baron suggesting "nil" effects of tobacco amid allegations of conflict of interest.

The government which had proposed to increase the size of pictorial size from April 1 has already deferred the decision following the parliamentary panel's recommendation.