Smoking corner in office to go up in smoke soon

HARD TALK: Ramadoss says from June onwards nobody would be allowed to smoke in public places.

      

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Keywords: Smoking Ban, Anbumani Ramadoss

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has said that by the end of May 2008, a smoke-free workplace law would be implemented across India. Speaking exclusively to CNN-IBN on Devil’s Advocate he said that any office or workplace whose employees are caught flouting this law would be fined heavily. He also asked Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan to follow Rajnikanth's example and quit smoking on screen.

Karan Thapar: Hello and welcome to Devil’s Advocate. Does the government have a duty to discourage smoking? If so, how effectively is the government doing it? That’s the key issue I shall raise today with the Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss.

Dr Ramadoss, given the present confusion of the government’s position on smoking, let me start by attaining your position as Health Minister. First of all, do you believe the Government has a duty to discourage smoking?

Anbumani Ramadoss: Absolutely — given the fact that India is one-sixth of humanity living on just 2.4 per cent of the world’s land, forty per cent of its health problem is tobacco related.

Karan Thapar: Alright, given that you say that the government has a duty to discourage smoking, do you also accept that all the research shows that graphic pictorial warnings are considerably more effective than textual cautions on cigarette packets?

Anbumani Ramadoss: Yes, it is very effective given India’s illiteracy rate and multi-language problem. Earlier we had textual statutory warnings but that didn’t prove to very helpful.

Karan Thapar: So you are saying that given that India has thirty six per cent illiteracy and on top of that it is a multi-lingual society, pictorial warning are perhaps the only way of making the poor and the uneducated aware of the harmful effects of smoking?

Anbumani Ramadoss: It is not the only way, but it is certainly a very effective way. We have seen examples of its effectiveness in other countries.

Karan Thapar: So is it the most effective way?

Anbumani Ramadoss: I can’t say it is the most effective way. It is one of the effective ways. To take as an example, 55 per cent of tobacco in India is beedi, and beedi is generally smoked by illiterate people.

Karan Thapar: Let me point out an international research that shows 68 per cent of Brazilian smokers and 57 per cent of Canadian smokers—two countries where pictorial warnings are compulsory—say that pictorial warnings have made them think twice, maybe even three times, about smoking. Is there any reason to believe that if pictorial warnings were made compulsory in India, Indians would behave differently?

Anbumani Ramadoss: I don’t think so. I am sure it will be very effective. All these times we have been saying things to people, but now I believe it is time to scare them and say: Look at these pictures. This is how you’ll end up if you smoke and continue the intake of tobacco products.

Karan Thapar: I want to repeat what you said: The time to scare people has come?