India - Cancer docs take tobacco battle inside parliament..

February 15, 2011 - Frustrated by the lackadaisical approach of the government in fighting tobacco-related cancer, two doctors from Mumbai took 40 patients to Delhi to meet politicians, hoping that direct contact with victims would finally swing lawmakers into action.

The patients, being treated at Tata Memorial Hospital, were brought together by Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi of TMH and Dr P C Gupta of Healis Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health to voice their concerns and petition for effective bans on Gutkha and strict pictorial warnings on cigarette packets.They succeeded in meeting Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, Union Minister for Coal Prakash Jaiswal, and Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dinesh Trivedi.

"Last year, there was a government notification that stringent warnings were to be carried on cigarette packs. It was to come into effect on December 1, but on December 20, the government gave the tobacco companies two more years. (India - will delay for a year the use of scarier pictorial warnings on cigarette and bidi packs..)

Reference: Cancer docs take tobacco battle inside parliament, Bapu Deedwania and Lata Mishra, MumbaiMirror.com, 2/13/2011.

India - some related news briefs:
^*http://snus-news.blogspot.com/2011/02/india-to-introduce-anti-tobacco.html;
^*India - 80% of teenagers in metropolitan cities are addicted to smoking cigarettes..;
^*India - despite govt ban, sale and advertising of tobacco products is rampant around educational institutions..;
^*India - foreign cigarette companies could soon find it harder to sell their products..;
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^*India - health ministry formulating policy that is smokeless tobacco specific..;
^*India - celebs shy away from endorsing tobacco and liquor..;
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^*India - will delay for a year the use of scarier pictorial warnings on cigarette and bidi packs..;
^*India - cigarettes and bidis manufacturers halt production seek clarification on pictorial health warnings..;
^*India - Tobacco Board warns farmers against planting unauthorized crop..;
^*India - revised pictorial warnings on tobacco products will be implemented from December 1, 2010..;
^*India - captions with pictorial warnings should use local languages..:
^*India - pictorial warning will appear on every tobacco pack sold from June 1, 2010..;
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^*India - gutkha and bidi companies NOT pictorial warnings..;
^*India - cigarette packs with pictorial warnings are here..; ^*India - NO graphic pictorial warnings yet..;
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^*India - placing pictorial warnings on tobacco products delayed again...