Call for chairman’s sacking over cancer-link question

A tobacco control group has called for the removal of the chairperson of India’s Committee on Subordinate Legislation, which recently called for more discussions over a proposal to increase the size of cigarette pack health warnings to 85 percent, according to a merinews story.

The Tamilnadu People’s Forum for Tobacco Control (TNPFTC) described as preposterous a statement by BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) MP Dilip Kumar Gandhi that there was a need for an Indian study to prove that tobacco causes cancer.

“Does this [smoking] cause cancer or does [it] not?,” the MP was reported by New Delhi Television to have said. “What are the impacts? We have never done our own survey.”

S. Cyril Alexander, state convener of the TNPFTC said in a press statement that the chairperson had completely ignored the health studies that had been done by the Health Ministry.