India, UK Join Growing List of Countries to Require Pictorial Tobacc...(ercent of the display areas and use pict...),Health

Dr. Prakash C. Gupta, Director of Research at the Healis-Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health in Mumbai, India, is leading efforts to urge the Indian government to strongly enforce the law starting December 1 and to resist industry demands for further delays and weaker measures.

"The tobacco industry has had plenty of time to get ready for the new requirements. There is no justification for more excuses when human lives are at stake," Dr. Gupta said.

"We applaud India and the United Kingdom for taking this important action to protect the health of their citizens and encourage other countries to follow their lead," said Damon Moglen, Vice President for International Programs at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "Scientific evidence indicates that picture warnings increase public awareness of the many ways tobacco use harms the human body and encourage smokers to quit. These warnings also help counter tobacco marketing that falsely portrays tobacco use as glamorous and appealing."

In the United States, Congress is currently considering legislation to grant the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products and marketing. One provision of this legislation would require larger, more effective health warnings than the small warnings currently printed on the side of cigarette packs in the U.S. The Senate version of the legislation would require graphic warnings that cover half the front and back of cigarette packs.

Tobacco use will kill five million people worldwide this year, and that number is projected to double by 2020, with 70 percent of these deaths in developing countries. Unless current trends are reversed, tobacco is projected to claim one billion lives this century. However, public health experts have concluded that 300 million deaths from tobacco can be prevented in the next 50 years by
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