A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested that the tobacco epidemic is likely to kill nearly six million people this year. As per the report, while more than five million of them will be users or ex-users of smoked and smokeless tobacco, more than 600,000 will be passive smokers. By 2030, tobacco could kill eight million people a year, it said.
The international health agency has, therefore, urged countries to make large graphic health warnings mandatory on tobacco packaging. According to WHO, which recommends the warnings among its six demand-reduction measures, the pictorial depictions have proven to discourage tobacco use.
“Large, graphic health warnings of the sort pioneered by Uruguay, Canada and a handful of other countries are an effective means of reducing tobacco’s appeal,” said Dr Douglas Bettche, Director of WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative.
After much struggle, India recently notified stricter pictorial warnings for tobacco products which will come to effect from December 1, 2011. “We are serious about the issue. The new findings of the WHO further ascertain that we are moving in the right direction,” said a senior official in the Union Health Ministry.
“Over one billion people in 19 countries are now covered by laws requiring large, graphic health warnings on packages of tobacco, nearly double the numbers two years ago,” said the WHO report, discussing the progress of tobacco control measures worldwide.
“We urge all countries to follow the best practices for reducing tobacco consumption and to become party to, and fully implement, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,” says WHO Assistant Director-General for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, Dr Ala Alwan.
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