Pictorial warnings on cigarette packets

Pictures of corpses and mouth cancer will be displayed on cigarette packets in India in order to convince people to stop smoking. Soon the packets of cigarette will come with a picture of a toddler with tubes running up his nostrils with the caption "Your smoking kills babies", rather than the old text warning "Cigarette smoking is injurious to health". According to official figures, more than 2,500 Indians die every day due to diseases associated with the consumption of tobacco products, and the health ministry admits laws prohibiting smoking in public places have had little impact. Given that one third of India's 1.1 billion people are illiterate, therefore picture warnings are vital. The pictorial warnings will also be pasted over the packs of bidis (popular hand-rolled cigarettes that are cheaper than filtered brands) and packets and tins of chewing tobacco. All tobacco products will also have to show a skull and crossbones image on their packaging, besides messages such as "Tobacco causes a slow and painful death". India already burdened by a surfeit of health problems ranging from HIV/AIDS to polio to child malnutrition, reports over 800,000 deaths annually due to tobacco-related diseases. The World Health Organization says chewing tobacco is addictive and linked to cancers of the head, neck, throat and oesophagus. In India, more than 45 percent of adult males indulge in tobacco consumption, and smoking is becoming trendier among younger people. Australia, Singapore and Canada are among countries to have already made it mandatory to have pictorial warnings on cigarette packets. Belgium plans to launch a similar campaign from May. Studies in Canada have shown that such warnings encouraged many smokers to cut down and others to quit. India's biggest cigarette-maker, ITC Ltd., said it would comply with the June deadline for pictorial warnings.