(a) Whether the Government proposes to make it mandatory for all cigarette packets
and gutka pouches to have pictorial health warnings with direct messages such as
smoking kills and smoking causes cancer;
(b) If so, the details thereof; and
(c) The time by which the notification in this regard is likely to be issued ?
THE MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (DR. ANBUMANI RAMADOSS)
(a)to(c) : A statement is laid on the Table of the House .
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 6
FOR 22ND NOVEMBER, 2006
`The Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation
of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003`, provides that `no
person shall, directly or indirectly, produce, supply or distribute cigarettes or any other tobacco
products unless every package of cigarettes or any other tobacco products produced, supplied
or distributed by him bears thereon, or on its label, the specified warnings including a pictorial
depiction of skull and cross bones and such other warning as may be prescribed`.
Accordingly, `The Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling)
Rules, 2006` have been notified on 5th July, 2006. The components of the Rules specify
the manner in which the skull and bones sign, the health warning, pictorial representation
of ill effects of tobacco use and the health message, would be printed on the tobacco product
packets. The health warnings are `Smoking kills` for smoking form of tobacco packs and `Tobacco
Kills` for chewing/smokeless forms of tobacco packages.These rules will come into effect from
1st February 2007.