Rise in tobacco use in India alarming

Tamilnadu, Chennai

News- Rise in tobacco use in India alarming

May 14 2007

CHENNAI: While the use of tobacco and tobacco products in Western countries is showing a fall, it is alarming that their use is increasing in India, V. Shanta, director, Cancer Institute, has said.
Speaking at a workshop on `100 per cent smoke-free environment,' Dr. Shanta said after years of intervention and fighting the tobacco lobby, mortality rates due to cancers caused by smoking and using other tobacco products had dropped.
"Unless we start now in India, we will soon have a large youth population affected by disease."
The only way to generate awareness about the harmful effects of smoking was to ensure that each and every individual was reached with the message. Unless the government and media pitched in, it would be difficult to take the topic to the larger population.
The workshop was organised for representatives of auto drivers, according to E. Vidhubala, Principal Investigator in the WHO and Central Government-sponsored Tobacco Cessation Clinic at the Cancer Institute.
These `master' trainers would train other colleagues, even their clients, and spread awareness about the need for creating smoke-free, healthy environments.
Publicity material including posters, handouts and bills were given to each participant, to be displayed prominently and also distributed. They would have to document their work over the rest of the month in order to produce a report at the end of the period. Three best performers would be awarded.
Dr. Vidhubala also urged the government to ensure that the Central specification on displaying pictorial warning signs on tobacco product packages was implemented stringently.

Health Minister KKSSR Ramachandran said it was a good idea to use the auto driver as a vehicle for communicating the message about smoking and cancer. Prevention was the only way to tackle non-communicable diseases and lifestyle modifications were important. Mr. Ramachandran congratulated Dr. Shanta and her team at the Cancer Institute for not only serving people already affected by cancer but also launching a number of programmes aimed at prevention of the condition.

online available at - http://www.hindu.com/2007/05/13/stories/2007051304240600.htm

Hollywood to stub out smoking in movies

News- Hollywood to stub out smoking in movies

14th May 2007,

Australian anti-tobacco lobbyists have put their weight behind regulations initiated in the US by the Motion Picture Association of America to award pictures an R rating if they include smoking.
The Australian Council on Smoking and Health said that Australia should adopt the policy immediately and classify movies that promoted smoking with an R rating.

An R rating in the US means people under 17 must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian. This can restrict the box office takings of many blockbusters which seek to attract the key teenage market.
ACOSH president Mike Daube said the tobacco companies were promoting smoking in films insidiously and evidence from the tobacco companies themselves showed they paid for tobacco placement in films.
“US research shows that smoking in films is a significant factor in children taking up the habit and increases the chance by two to three times,” he said.
The MPAA guidelines will not affect films where smoking is historically portrayed but will impose a tougher classification if smoking is glamorised, gratuitous or pervasive.
But leading US anti-smoking activist Stanton Glantz told The West Australian the new measures were “loophole-ridden guidelines”.
Professor Glantz said the studios, which control the MPPA, want the measures to include an option for smoking in films and want to keep paid product placement. Spider-Man 3, which just set a record for the highest grossing weekend in film history and will be seen by children around the globe, features smoking characters as do recent films such as the Cameron Diaz release The Holiday, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Blood Diamond, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Mission Impossible III and The Da Vinci Code.
Heart Foundation chief executive Maurice Swanson disputed the necessity of increasing classifications and said a more effective strategy would be to require studios or cinema chains to commission hard-hitting advertisements before a film to combat the “massive, evil force” of cigarettes.
“Increasing the rating invokes censorship questions. Research in NSW shows that hard-hitting warnings heightened young people’s awareness and it gets them to think about why cigarettes are in a film at all,” he said.
Federal Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock said he would write to the director of the Board of Film and Literature Classification to draw the issue to his attention and seek information on how smoking in films was currently being considered by the board.

India’s Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss recently banned all cigarette smoking and tobacco product placement from Bollywood productions.

online available at- http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=23&ContentID=28591