Pictorial warnings on tobacco prods may become reality

Mon, May 12 08:04 PM

New Delhi, May 12 (PTI) Pictorial warnings on tobacco products may soon become a reality with the government's request of clubbing all such court cases having been granted by the Supreme Court. A Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, cleared Scorpion and Lungs as the pictorial warnings to be displayed on cigarettes and other tobacco products.

But the implementation of these had been held up because of a case contesting the same in the Himachal Pradesh High Court. "We had requested the Supreme Court to club all such cases and they have granted our plea on May 9," Union Health Secretary Naresh Dayal told reporters here today.

Thus all the cases would be moved to the Delhi High Court except the one already at the Himachal Pradesh High Court. Dayal said the government would also be setting up three laboratories by March next year to test nicotine levels in various tobacco products.

While one of the labs would be set up in Ahmedabad, the sites for the other two are as yet undecided. "We will prescribe the nicotine contents as soon as we have the labs to test," he said.

PTI.

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