Doctors urge PM Modi for 85% pictorial warnings on tobacco items

Kota (Raj), Mar 26: Over 600 doctors today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to implement '85 per cent pictorial warnings' on all tobacco product packages with effect from April 1, 2016.

As many as 653 doctors wrote individual letters to the Prime Minister requesting him to implement the larger pictorial warning on packages of tobacco products, Sanjay Seth, Chief of Operations of 'Voice of Tobacco Victims' campaign said.

They also requested him to reject the recommendation of Lok Sabha Committee on Subordinate Legislation for 50 per cent coverage on both sides of cigarette packs and up to 50 per cent on one side of beedi and chewing tobacco product packs.

Copies of the letters written by doctors, who are from various states of the country, have also been sent to Union Health Minister J P Nadda, Seth said.

Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, Surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital Mumbai, claimed that plethora of medical research have proven that tobacco is the only consumer product that has no good use except causing disease, disability and death.

Pawan Singhal, VOTV state patron and Associate Professor at SMS Hospital, said large pictorial warning on tobacco packets is the most cost effective way to prevent youngsters from initiating the use and encourage consumers to quit the habit.

PTI