Karnataka HC: Pictorial warning on Tobacco products unconstitutional

Karnataka, Dec 19: For lowering the tobacco consumption on April 1 , 2016 large pictorial warnings started getting displayed in the tobacco products.

But the Karnataka High Court's ruling that makes 85% pictorial warnings on tobacco products unconstitutional is a major setback to public health.

The pictorial warnings have helped reduce tobacco consumption in India by 6% in seven years. Tobacco use fell from 34.6% in 2009-10 to 28.6% in 2016-17, with 810,000 fewer people using tobacco despite population growth, shows data from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2017. The fall was the sharpest in young people (15-24 years), with tobacco use falling by 33%, from 18.4% in 2010 to 12.4% in 2017.

Tobacco causes 100,000 deaths each year, leading to one in 20 deaths in women and one in five deaths in men. But after the court ruling many companies may remove the pictorial warning which may again increase sale of tobacco based products.