India to impose huge health warnings

India is set to impose new regulations that will see 80 percent of the front and back faces of tobacco packs covered with health warnings, according to a story by Sanchita Sharma for the Hindustan Times.

The new regulations will see, too, a ban on the manufacture and sale of electronic cigarettes.

Photographs of cancers will occupy 65 percent of the front and back of tobacco packs while 15 percent of the surfaces will be used for text warnings.

Four photographs have been shortlisted for the new warnings, which are expected to be included on packs by April 1 next year.

Currently, warnings appear only on one side of packs, covering 20 percent of the entire pack.

“These are part of stringent rules introduced to lower tobacco addiction among the young, such as increasing the legal age for tobacco use to 21 years,” said Union Health Minister, Harsh Vardhan.

The new rules on electronic cigarettes, meanwhile, seem merely to codify a ban that applies by default. “E-cigarettes are not approved by the Drug Controller General of India, therefore its sale and use is illegal in India,” an official of the directorate of health services was reported to have said.